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SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 19, 2016

Sigi Schmid

Harrison, New Jersey

New York Red Bulls - 2, Seattle - 0

SIGI SCHMID: We created a number of really, really good chances. We had probably a couple we should have scored before but outside of that I thought we played really well, but the end of the day, Red Bull won.

Q. You always talk about that goals change games, you had four or five stops; your thoughts on that going into halftime?
SIGI SCHMID: Goals change games. You know, there's nothing else I can say. You've got to make goalkeepers make saves. The easiest save for the goalkeeper is the one he doesn't have to make. So it can look great when you're bending the ball towards the corner, but if you don't hit the frame, he doesn't have to do anything. So we've got to make sure we make goalkeepers work and we've got to finish those opportunities.

Q. Did the Open Cup game have any impact?
SIGI SCHMID: No.

Q. Your 500th game, general idea of the changes, good and bad, that you've seen in American soccer since you've been here at the college level, pro level?
SIGI SCHMID: Well, I mean, soccer has definitely improved an awful lot. Even in my years in MLS, the quality of play has certainly gotten much stronger, you know, much better early on, and the MLS, the defending was porous, to say the least.

Now teams defend well, but teams also keep possession of the ball. They move the ball around. They make you work. Just the overall quality of play has improved, and I think all aspects of the game: The coaching, the players; I'll even say the referees.

Q. What did you think of Joevin Jones?
SIGI SCHMID: I thought early on, I thought he wasn't in the game the first ten, 15 minutes but then early on, he got some good chances to run at Zizzo, and I thought he created some problems. I would have wanted to see him do it a little more.

Q. Kovar looked very well tonight. I know you took many chances. Do you feel when you make a substitution, you should have maybe brought in a defender to leave him in there with Jordan up top?
SIGI SCHMID: Kovar played in The Open Cup game and he wasn't finishing anything, and I could see that that was affecting him, as well. So we felt that was the reason for the change.

Q. You talked about defending in the MLS; how much of that is defending and how much of it is --
SIGI SCHMID: I think we were tired. I take nothing away from their combination, their running, and it was a good little overlapping run that put it in. But if Evans gets his foot fully on the ball, then it's not a problem; then Frei just clear it is and Frei almost got there anyway. Grella finished it well. It was a good bit of skill. But I think on our part it was a little bit of fatigue, and with the Red Bull, it was combination there and it was a quality finish.

Q. So many chances in the first half --
SIGI SCHMID: We just have to continue to play the way we're playing, because our tactics were right. We talked about the tactics and we talked about how we wanted to play and the guys followed that, and I thought we opened them up fairly well, you know.

So I said to continue to do what we're doing. We can get goals. But when you're 1-0 down, it's really nothing but when you're 2-0, it becomes a little harder.

Q. Jordan up front as well, on these nights, his development -- he finds the net, as well.
SIGI SCHMID: Yeah, it's his first professional year. Thing is, every game over the last six or so that he's played for us, he's gotten three to four good looks in each game, and now it's a matter of him, instead of, you know, finishing 20 percent of those looks, he needs to start finishing 30 and 40 and then 50 percent of those looks and that just comes with experience.

Q. Four of your last five games -- what are your chances?
SIGI SCHMID: We've got to score goals. It's a matter of continuing to go to the practice ground, continue to work on our finishing, but a lot of it is just the confidence of the players.

Q. Can you answer firstly the 500 appearances, but what does it mean to you to coach in 500 games?
SIGI SCHMID: I mean, it just means that I've had a lot of good players. I've been blessed that way, and I've had the opportunity to coach a lot of good players and it's allowed me to stay in the league. So it's great. I probably won't remember this game very much because of the way it ended.

Q. In those 500 games of experience, how do you find that experience to raise confidence?
SIGI SCHMID: You have to keep doing what you're doing. It's not we're not creating chances. We're creating chances, so we have to continue to do that and we have to continue to believe in how we're playing.

Obviously we have to wait for some of our young players to mature, because when you look at who the chances fell to tonight, you're looking at Jordan Morris, you're looking at Aaron Kovar, you're looking at Oalex Anderson, even Joevin Jones. Those guys are young guys. So we need to wait for those guys to mature a little bit. And it would help if we stay injury-free.

If you look at the Red Bull front six, if you take out Lloyd Sam, the other five have probably played, what, 95 percent of their last 50 games together, so that leads to continuity and understanding.

Q. Following up on that, there was one point in the second half, the shot went just wide, turned, you could see the frustration on your face, if we could just put one on the net. That frustration, from your perspective, how do you get it out of them so that they can finish those chances and not put more pressure?
SIGI SCHMID: I think they are equally frustrated on the field. Obviously when they are playing the game, they can't sit there and pout and throw a tantrum and stop playing.

It's just a matter of continuing to work on it, like I said, and at practice, continuing to put an emphasis on scoring goals and training.

Q. (Inaudible.)
SIGI SCHMID: He was gone with Paraguay. He really didn't play many games with them. He had come off a calf injury with us before he went into Paraguay. We didn't feel he was 90 minutes fit, and the way we were playing, we were playing well, so there was no need to make a change earlier.

Q. Leading up to this game, Jones -- still a spot for him?
SIGI SCHMID: As a sub, he's come on and made an impact for us, coming off the wing. This is the first game he started for us on the wing. He started there for Trinidad numerous times.

Again, he's such a good player, I always expect a little more from him.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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