TORONTO -- When the 2016 season began in March, the Seattle Sounders were a shoo-in to make the MLS Cup playoffs. Now in December, they've surpassed expectations, reaching the MLS Cup final for the first time in the club's history. But their path to the Cup wasn't a straightforward one.
In July, the Sounders parted ways with the only manager they'd ever known in MLS, replacing Sigi Schmid with Brian Schmetzer. At a news conference ahead of Saturday's game, Schmetzer called that transition "a bummer."
"The emotional side and the human element side is when [Schmid] gets fired, I get the job, so somebody has to get fired for me to get my opportunity," he said. "So that's the story that, you know, those first couple days, you think about.
"And it's definitely a bummer, but at the end of the day, he understands this business, I understand this business. There will be a day when I might not have a job, and you just deal with it."
When Schmid was dismissed, Seattle had amassed just 17 points from 20 matches, sat ninth in the 10-team Western Conference and were nine points adrift of what seemed an increasingly unlikely playoff place. In stepped Schmetzer, who has overseen the club's remarkable turnaround.
After his appointment on July 26, the Cascadian giants took 31 points in their final 15 matches. They finished the season in fourth place out West, two points above the sixth and final playoff place, occupied by Real Salt Lake.
Schmetzer, a Seattle native, spent two stints playing for the Sounders in the 1980s and 1990s before managing the team in its USL days for seven seasons in the mid-2000s. At the urging of club owner Adrian Hanauer, Schmetzer was brought on as Schmid's assistant in 2009.
"You guys have to remember that I was part of [Schmid]'s staff for seven and a half years and I hope that my contributions to him, making him a successful coach, you guys all understand," Schmetzer said. "He allowed me to grow as a coach and so we don't have any issues."
Since leaving Seattle, Schmid was in the running for the once-vacant manager position with Minnesota United, which has since been filled by Adrian Heath.
LA Galaxy president Chris Klein suggested that Schmid, the former manager there from 1999 to 2004, was a candidate to replace Bruce Arena as the club's new coach.