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MLS PLAYOFFS MEDIA CONFERENCE

December 5, 2016

Brian Schmetzer

New York, New York

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to introduce Brian Schmetzer from Seattle Sounders. Welcome to the call, and thank you so much for joining us. If you could, please, just a couple comments about your perspective headed into Saturday as you approach MLS Cup against Toronto FC.

BRIAN SCHMETZER: Well, we're looking forward to a good final. I think both teams have done really well. Toronto has been near the top pretty much all season over there in the East. I have a ton of respect for Greg and Robin. They've done a tremendous job there, and I think we have kind of found our way a little bit, and I think the coaching staff has kind of looked at things a little differently. We were able to kind of figure a few things out, added Lodeiro, got Roman Torres back, got the best out of some of our veteran guys that we have on the squad, and we've been fortunate to make a good run and end up in a final.

Obviously we watched all the games that Toronto has played recently, and it was a really exciting playoff series against Montreal. You know, that was a tremendous game there in Toronto. We're looking forward to it, looking forward to going there and hopefully providing another good, entertaining soccer match.

Q. Brian, in all the years that you've been around American soccer and watched MLS title games from afar, have you ever seen one with quite this much star power? There have been a lot of good teams, but save maybe for when LA got to those finals, there hasn't been quite this much really individual star talent. Have you ever seen a match-up quite like this one in an MLS final?
BRIAN SCHMETZER: Well, the MLS is always getting better, and certainly there were teams in the past with -- I mean, LA had Beckham and a bunch of guys. I don't know what you mean exactly by star power. I would almost turn it around and say, that was a really entertaining soccer match filled with a good mix of the Giovincos, the Altidores, the Drogbas, the Piattis, mixed in with a bunch of guys that really wanted to win, a couple of franchises. The rivalry between Montreal and Toronto is so competitive. It reminds me of our rivals here with Portland and Vancouver.

So I think the game as a stand-alone soccer match, minus the stars -- I could name some of the accomplishments of some of the guys that came on as subs for Toronto and scored big goals. I just thought overall it was a great match.

Q. Brian, when you look at this matchup, you look at the rivalries between the different parts of the country, do you see that as important in the evolution of your team because with the situation you were in, about every game was a must-win just to get through that, so getting into the playoffs, does it seem pretty much normal because the last three months have been like a series of playoff games and this is like a culmination now, you've gotten all the way to the final?
BRIAN SCHMETZER: In some small odd way, yes, I think it has helped us. We were in a place where every game was a must-win game, just to reach the playoffs. You know what it's like; it's the playoffs. That first game against Kansas City, that was a must-win game. Then okay, you have some two-leg series when you have 180 minutes, but by that time, we had already played 12 or 14 must-win games before we got into those series.

Now, fast forward to now, it's the MLS Cup, it's a one-game, one-off for the championship, so I think my team is seasoned, if that's the right adjective I want to use. I think we've come through some adversity at times and figured out ways how to win games. So I do think that it's kind of helped us.

Q. Could you guide us a little bit through Cristian Roldan's progress this season? What's he done? How has he done it? What's next in his growth, and what kind of impact has playing alongside Alonso had for him?
BRIAN SCHMETZER: Well, I love talking about Cristian because he's such a great kid. He has developed really nicely and has kind of -- I think it's a two-way street actually between Ozzie and he. I know Ozzie is a great player, and I've also made mention of Gonzalo Pineda also helping Cristian last season, so Ozzie and Pineda, two veteran guys helping this eager young player learn the game of soccer.

But then I think Ozzie is the beneficiary of some of Cristian's youthfulness, his energy, his tactics, his smarts, where he puts himself on the field. So the partnership there is really terrific.

The last thing I can add is Cristian is a great young player, and a lot of people talk about Jordan's ride, and Jordan is a superstar in the making. Well, that goes both ways, as well. I think Cristian has made Jordan a better player, and Jordan has made Cristian a better player. They love hanging together. I know Cristian goes over to the Morris household for dinner at times, and those guys are thick as thieves.

I think he's been surrounded. I think Cristian has been surrounded by a lot of positive influences in his life, and I think that's helped.

Q. If you had to pinpoint one or two things that he can do now that perhaps he couldn't do last season, what would they be?
BRIAN SCHMETZER: Well, we worked on them. As a rookie coming in, he didn't play as regularly. But one of the things we always were hounding him about was just his overall technical ability, just making sure he was a little cleaner with his first touch, you know, away from pressure or into space to really drive at opponents, or his passing, did he really have those real finer details.

And then the other side of it was just his vision and his thinking the game. I think we were encouraged by whenever we gave him instruction, we could actually see him trying to implement it, so we knew that he was taking the information and actually applying it.

Those were the couple of areas that we were real happy about with his development.

Q. You mentioned looking at things differently and getting the best out of your guys. Interested in what you think about data and analytics and if the Sounders' use of analytics has increased since you took over in July. I'm also interested just given Bruce's comments on how he's not super into the use of data to drive decision making, so just want to get your take on that.
BRIAN SCHMETZER: Okay, I can probably talk about that question for a long time because I think data and film and all of those things, they're good conversation starters. I'm not going to comment about Bruce and his opinion. He's obviously had a lot more success than I have. But when I'm looking at my team, and Dave Tenney and his staff do a terrific job of giving me good information, so what that does is I'll look at things at a training session, and I'll see what I see, and then in the afternoon when I get the report, it just gives me another layer of detail that Dave and I and the coaching staff can talk about as to whether we trained hard enough, we didn't -- we trained too hard, whether we need to push particular individuals.

I think data is really good tool to really fine tune some of the coaching decisions that we make.

Now, at the end of the day, it's just one part of coaching. We still need to talk to people. We still need to manage personalities. We still need to look at things visually to make good decisions. But here in Seattle, we're certainly blessed to have a lot of people working, and like I said, giving me more information and more starting points for better conversations.

Q. How much would you credit that to just the team's turnaround here?
BRIAN SCHMETZER: Well, I think it's a testament more to the eight years of success that the Sounders have had. I mean, we've been pretty successful for eight years, and Dave has been involved all eight years.

I couldn't put a percentage on it as far as what the -- where we were in July, and now we're in MLS Cup. I don't know if I could put a -- it would be fair to put a percentage on the data. We've been doing it for a long time, and we use the information to the best of our ability, and it's helpful.

Q. Brian, I'm just curious, the weather up here in Toronto, it's possible that it'll go down below freezing for the weekend. I'm just wondering what kind of game we can expect if the temperatures do drop like that. Does it change the skill level? Does it make the game more direct do you think? And does it change the way that the Sounders will prepare for the final?
BRIAN SCHMETZER: Well, I've got two answers for you. I don't know if you've checked the weather reports for here in Tukwila this morning, but it was snowing, although very briefly, this morning. It was about 33 degrees and a mix of rain and snow 30 minutes prior to training. So we've managed to duplicate the exact atmospheric conditions for the final.

And then the second answer for me is the groundskeepers. You guys had a great Cup final, and again, I wasn't at the game in Montreal, but it didn't look like the players were slipping. The field looked good. From what I read in the press, the groundskeepers worked extremely hard to get the field in a playable condition, and so I don't expect any changes.

Sometimes wind or rain, yes, they can affect things, but control the controllables. We can't control those things. Our expectations are just that the field will be in good condition and the training won't be that -- it's not like we're coming from sunny CancÃºn or someplace like that to play the game. We're actually pretty far north ourselves.

Q. Your No. 10 Lodeiro has made an immediate impact in MLS. Obviously he has a quality rÃ©sumÃ© with some big teams, but I'm wondering, when he came to your club, did you -- were you surprised by anything in what you saw from him, or did he come as advertised?
BRIAN SCHMETZER: Well, he came as advertised. We'd been doing some extensive scouting, sending three different people to watch him live, obviously watching him on film. We did a lot of due diligence to make sure that he was the right fit for our team, but he was almost better than what you saw on TV, better than what you saw on film. I never was able to watch him live when he was playing in Boca, but from the minute he came on the training field, on the game day field, he's been tremendous, and a couple of guys have asked me, you know, here in Seattle what's the difference between a guy like Lodeiro and Giovinco, and to me the difference there is Giovinco is more of a forward, I think, who can pass the ball, and Nico is kind of more of a midfielder who can score. And I think that is, again, one of the interesting story lines to this match, Nico and Giovinco and their value to their respective teams.

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