Football
ESPN staff 7y

Brian Schmetzer hails Sounders team for clawing back to playoff position

Seattle Sounders interim coach Brian Schmetzer is giving all the credit to his players after steering the club into playoff position for the first time this season.

Wednesday's 1-0 win over the Chicago Fire put the Sounders in the top six of the Western Conference -- a feat that seemed unlikely when longtime head coach Sigi Schmid was fired on July 26.

Schmetzer has inspired the team to take 21 points from their last 10 matches, surpassing their total from the opening 20 games, and said of his players: "Give them all the credit.

"That is a committed group. From the day I took over, they've given me everything. They've given everything for themselves. They truly believe that they have ownership of the team."

Goal scorer Chad Marshall said the players never doubted their ability to respond after Schmid's departure.

"When the organisation made the move that we did with where we were at, everyone in here believed that we could still get it done," Marshall said.

"The last few months have been promising, and we're happy to be moving up."

Goalkeeper Stefan Frei said the Sounders seemed more "mature" than earlier in the season.

"I haven't been looking at the standings this whole season," Frei added. "When you're losing games, you know where you're finding yourself.

"It's nice to know we're stringing together results and you can sense you're going up, but by no means can we let off the pedal at this point. It would be the worst thing for us to do.

"We've worked hard to give ourselves a chance to get into the playoffs, and we have to make sure that hard work counts."

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