Sigi Schmid is out, Nicolas Lodeiro is in and the pressure is squarely on GM Garth Lagerwey in Seattle.
It’s been a jarring week for the Sounders, who parted ways with club icon Schmid on Tuesday, signed Lodeiro to a DP deal on Wednesday, then saw a badly-needed three points slip through their hands in a 1-1 draw with the LA Galaxy on Sunday.
“It’s been a rough week,” Lagerwey said in a phone interview with MLSsoccer.com after Sunday’s game [Editor's Note: Sam Stejskal and Garth Lagerwey worked together at Real Salt Lake from 2012-2014].
“It’s a hard time any time you have to make a coaching change and when you’re parting ways with a legend, literally with someone who’s been the foundation for the franchise, it’s that much tougher.”
Sunday’s result kept the 6-12-3 Sounders in ninth in the West, though they did make up one point on the sixth-place Vancouver Whitecaps, who lost at FC Dallas on Sunday.
More important than the result, however, was the demarcation line crossed in Seattle last week. With Schmid out, the Sounders are now Lagerwey’s to construct.
With that increased responsibility comes some added heat, even if Lagerwey said on Sunday night he’s not feeling any extra pressure.
Though he moved to Seattle from Real Salt Lake following the 2014 season, the high-priced signings the club made last year – Roman Torres, Nelson Valdez and Andreas Ivanschitz – had been in the works before Lagerwey arrived. Obafemi Martins’ February departure to China happened squarely on his watch, but the long-rumored move to get Lodeiro was Lagerwey’s first truly major acquisition in Seattle.
Lagerwey said in the wake of Schmid’s departure that he’s never going to dictate a system or formation for Seattle, but that what he’s demanding is that the Sounders have an identity. Outside of lumping the ball to Martins and Clint Dempsey, the Sounders haven’t had much of one in recent years. It worked fine when Clint and Oba were running together, but with Martins in Shanghai, it’s all fallen apart.
Lagerwey’s betting that Lodeiro, who sparkled in his Sounders debut on Sunday, will play a huge role in helping Seattle transform from an untethered, unsuccessful team in 2016 into a club with a consistent system and a true identity in the future.
“I think we got Lodeiro to be a possession-based, attacking, entertaining team that has the ability to dictate the game,” he said. “I think that it’s part of being a big club – you want to be able to have a higher standard and really aspire to be one of the best soccer-playing teams in the league. I think it’s on some level incumbent that if we want to move this sport forward in this country, that the big clubs take chances and bring in players that allow us to do things like that.
“It’s certainly something we aspire to do, is to play good soccer and to pass the ball and to be able to play soccer that’s fun to watch and that people will turn on the TV to see. So that’s what I hope we will become. As to what we’ve done, what they’ve done in Seattle was very effective for seven years. They made the playoffs every year, won four Open Cups and one Supporters’ Shield. I don’t think it’s for me to criticize that, I think it’s just a chance for us now to have a new beginning and hopefully a way forward.”
For now, that way forward doesn’t look like it’ll include the 2016 playoffs, which will likely require around 50 points in the West this year. Seattle need 29 points in their remaining 13 games to hit that mark, a record that would require slightly less than 2.25 points per game. Lodeiro or not, that sounds pretty unlikely for a team that’s averaged 1.0 PPG in their first 21 matches.
In the likely event that they aren’t playing come Halloween, expect big changes for the Sounders. Lagerwey said as much last week, and reiterated his comments on Sunday.
The Sounders have plenty of age in their rotation, with eight of the 12 players used on Sunday 30 or older. Many of those players will be on the block this winter, with several – perhaps even a big name or two – very likely to see the door even if Seattle pulls off a miracle and make the playoffs.
Those potential exits, as well as the club’s looming coaching decision (Lagerwey said that the Sounders will "begin their coaching process after the transfer window closes" on Wednesday, with interim coach Brian Schmetzer set to be in the running), will only serve to mold the team further in Lagerwey’s image.
It’s a new era in Seattle, and the time for deference is over. Lagerwey’s been with the club for more than 18 months, but in many ways, his job is just getting started. Pressure’s on.
