Sigi Schmid was officially presented as the Seattle Sounders head coach on Tuesday. One of the main non-soccer reasons he chose Seattle was his family ties to the area. His brother Roland lives in Seattle and Schmid had a son who attended the University of Washington.
As far as the footballing aspect, it will be really interesting to see how Seattle enters 2009. The expansion club will have problems as all recent expansion teams have had early on but Schmid is, in my opinion, the best coach in MLS history. He's won two MLS Cups and another coach with a similar resume helped turn things around quickly in his expansion season. Frank Yallop guided San Jose to... okay, last place, but the team was in a much better position during the second half of the season than it was from April through June.
Schmid has more to work with at the start of the season than Yallop did - Darren Huckerby didn't get there until the summer - and Schmid has yet another expansion team to look at and see what went right and wrong for them and try to avoid doing the same mistakes.
Whatever happens in 2009, one thing is certain - if Schmid and Yallop stick around, the Western Conference will be quite strong as the pair plus Dominic Kinnear will head three formidable teams. Bruce Arena, of course, is also out here so the soccer minds running their respective teams are strong. The only thing with Arena is the volatility of the situation with the Galaxy but if he can stabilize things, this conference could potentially have some great and proven MLS coaches pulling the strings out here for years to come.
Showing posts with label Schmid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Schmid. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Sigi's gone
Sigi Schmid is gone. In a move that surprises few people, Schmid will no longer coach the Columbus Crew.
Schmid, who is easily one of the best coaches in Major League Soccer history, is likely to take over the expansion Seattle Sounders, which would be nothing short of a coup for the first-year club.
Schmid won MLS Cup titles with the Galaxy in 2002 and this year with Columbus and also has US Open Cup and CONCACAF Cup titles to his name.
We saw how successful a two-time MLS Cup-winning coach was this year with San Jose and Frank Yallop - the club was horrid early but improved vastly over the course of the season. Thus, I'd expect Seattle to be competitive next year; maybe not from the start but Seattle will be heard from at some point in 2009.
Schmid, who is easily one of the best coaches in Major League Soccer history, is likely to take over the expansion Seattle Sounders, which would be nothing short of a coup for the first-year club.
Schmid won MLS Cup titles with the Galaxy in 2002 and this year with Columbus and also has US Open Cup and CONCACAF Cup titles to his name.
We saw how successful a two-time MLS Cup-winning coach was this year with San Jose and Frank Yallop - the club was horrid early but improved vastly over the course of the season. Thus, I'd expect Seattle to be competitive next year; maybe not from the start but Seattle will be heard from at some point in 2009.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
More Sigi
Sigi Schmid is a popular topic for Southern California scribes. Here's another story on Herr Schmid, this one from the San Diego Union-Tribune's Mark Zeigler.
Even though he's been gone for four years now, Schmid is still a favorite here in SoCal. I know whenever the Crew comes one of the things I look forward to is talking to Sigi Schmid. He's a very friendly fellow, not shy, loves to talk and quite helpful.
And although I can't speak for all the local hacks, those who thought Schmid deserved to be fired are well in the minority.
Even though he's been gone for four years now, Schmid is still a favorite here in SoCal. I know whenever the Crew comes one of the things I look forward to is talking to Sigi Schmid. He's a very friendly fellow, not shy, loves to talk and quite helpful.
And although I can't speak for all the local hacks, those who thought Schmid deserved to be fired are well in the minority.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sigi's Tale
Nick Green of the Daily Breeze wrote a bit of a fairy tale story on Columbus coach Sigi Schmid.
No really, it is a fairy tale.
No really, it is a fairy tale.
Back to where it all began
The Sigi Schmid era in LA may as well be ancient history. There is hardly anyone on the team around that was here when Schmid was coach. Peter Vagenas is one. Cobi Jones as well, though he's in a different role.
But Schmid's legacy only grows stronger with time as coach upon coach has come and gone with the Galaxy.
Since the two parted ways, Schmid has bounced back in a big way as he's taking his team to MLS Cup at Home Depot Center on Sunday. The Galaxy, meanwhile, won an MLS Cup title after Schmid departed but went into a downward spiral shortly thereafter.
I explored a little the resliency of Sigi Schmid in my Tuesday PE column.
During Tuesday's conference call, I asked him about his firing and whether he felt vindication now, four years after the fact. Here's the full exchange from the quote sheet the league sent out on Monday.
Q. Sigi, I was covering the Galaxy back in '04 when you were fired, and I think it was a horrible decision then and I think it's a horrible decision now that you were ever fired from the Galaxy. Couple of questions. First, do you feel any sort of vindication now that you're coming back here to the Home Depot Center back to the MLS Cup final, and also do you think that your firing was the first in the demise of the Galaxy as it were, even though they went on to win the MLS Cup in 2005?
Schmid: I mean, you know the results. The Galaxy have had over the years. Also makes me sad because I grew up in Southern California when the Galaxy was the first professional team that I coached. And I thought I would have a tenure at Galaxy like Ferguson has had and Wenger has had at Arsenal. You would hope it would go along that way. But along the way that didn't happen. You can't look back. One of the big mottos of our team is the next play and don't worry about just what happened, let's worry about what's going to happen.
And so that's where I've been focused on is to do that and go forward. The only thing from the Galaxy, the only thing that bothers me, to be very honest with you, being fired and all that, okay, it happens and as a coach you know you're going to get fired, I guess. But the only thing that bothers me was the insinuation at the time that we didn't play attractive enough soccer, that we weren't offensive enough. And that moniker was sort of hung on me and that bothers me because at the time we were the highest scoring team in the league.
And that was disappointing to me, because I felt my teams have always been reflective of, yes, we play good defense but we play good defense. And Frankie knows this, we play good defense so we can play good offense. You've got to have the ball in order to attack. If you don't play good defense you're not going to get the ball.
So we want the ball so we can attack. When you look at my teams they're maybe not the highest scoring team in the league but they're always in the top three or so in the league of scoring goals and that's what I've always wanted when I've had good teams.
That's the only thing that bothers me from those days and the rest of it is the Galaxy is on their path. That's Bruce Arena's baby now he's working at that and my baby is Columbus Crew and we're playing on Sunday and we're very excited about that.
But Schmid's legacy only grows stronger with time as coach upon coach has come and gone with the Galaxy.
Since the two parted ways, Schmid has bounced back in a big way as he's taking his team to MLS Cup at Home Depot Center on Sunday. The Galaxy, meanwhile, won an MLS Cup title after Schmid departed but went into a downward spiral shortly thereafter.
I explored a little the resliency of Sigi Schmid in my Tuesday PE column.
During Tuesday's conference call, I asked him about his firing and whether he felt vindication now, four years after the fact. Here's the full exchange from the quote sheet the league sent out on Monday.
Q. Sigi, I was covering the Galaxy back in '04 when you were fired, and I think it was a horrible decision then and I think it's a horrible decision now that you were ever fired from the Galaxy. Couple of questions. First, do you feel any sort of vindication now that you're coming back here to the Home Depot Center back to the MLS Cup final, and also do you think that your firing was the first in the demise of the Galaxy as it were, even though they went on to win the MLS Cup in 2005?
Schmid: I mean, you know the results. The Galaxy have had over the years. Also makes me sad because I grew up in Southern California when the Galaxy was the first professional team that I coached. And I thought I would have a tenure at Galaxy like Ferguson has had and Wenger has had at Arsenal. You would hope it would go along that way. But along the way that didn't happen. You can't look back. One of the big mottos of our team is the next play and don't worry about just what happened, let's worry about what's going to happen.
And so that's where I've been focused on is to do that and go forward. The only thing from the Galaxy, the only thing that bothers me, to be very honest with you, being fired and all that, okay, it happens and as a coach you know you're going to get fired, I guess. But the only thing that bothers me was the insinuation at the time that we didn't play attractive enough soccer, that we weren't offensive enough. And that moniker was sort of hung on me and that bothers me because at the time we were the highest scoring team in the league.
And that was disappointing to me, because I felt my teams have always been reflective of, yes, we play good defense but we play good defense. And Frankie knows this, we play good defense so we can play good offense. You've got to have the ball in order to attack. If you don't play good defense you're not going to get the ball.
So we want the ball so we can attack. When you look at my teams they're maybe not the highest scoring team in the league but they're always in the top three or so in the league of scoring goals and that's what I've always wanted when I've had good teams.
That's the only thing that bothers me from those days and the rest of it is the Galaxy is on their path. That's Bruce Arena's baby now he's working at that and my baby is Columbus Crew and we're playing on Sunday and we're very excited about that.
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