TUKWILA, Wash. – Much has been made of the Seattle Sounders’ contentious 3-1 US Open Cup defeat to the Portland Timbers last month, an affair that saw three Sounders players get sent off with red cards and head coach Sigi Schmid leave his own sideline in a show of frustration with the game’s officiating.
Following Seattle’s Wednesday training session at Starfire Soccer Complex, Schmid apologized for some heated comments he made to the media after the game.
Schmid previously apologized for leaving the sideline but had yet to address the postgame quotes.
“I didn’t want to get thrown out, so I just walked away from the bench because I was maybe going to choke a referee,” Schmid told reporters in his postgame media session. “So I figured I’d walk away before I did something stupid.”
Schmid expressed contrition for those comments to the media on Wednesday, also saying that he has not yet been informed of any potential discipline that could still come his way.
“In 40 years of coaching I’ve never touched a referee, nor would I ever do that,” Schmid said. “But I want to make sure that young coaches out there who heard that statement understand that that’s not the right thing to say.”
Schmid also said that he has family ties to the referring community, meaning that he has a great understanding of the difficulties of the job and can sympathize with the fallout that can come with controversial calls in big moments.
“My father was a referee in Southern California for years and years,” Schmid said. “They came over and played chess with him, and I’ve known referees since I was a teenager because of his refereeing. There’s never been any animosity or anything like that.”
Schmid’s apology comes in the midst of a tough stretch for Seattle, who have lost three straight matches since the Open Cup defeat to the Timbers heading into their Friday night home matchup against Eastern Conference leaders D.C. United (11 pm ET; UniMas), scoring just one goal over the course of those three games.
It doesn’t figure to get any easier for the Sounders as they try and make due without top goal-scorers Clint Dempsey (US national team duty) and Obafemi Martins (adductor injury).
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Dempsey – who was ejected near the end of the Open Cup game for the now-infamous offense of grabbing the referee’s notebook and tearing it up – was stripped of his US national team captaincy in the upcoming Gold Cup for the act. Toronto FC midfielder Michael Bradley will now handle captain duties for the US.
For his part, Seattle general manager Garth Lagerwey says that the tough stretch will ultimately benefit the Sounders in the long run and that low points are an imperative aspect for the learning process of any team.
“In my job, you have to take the long view,” Lagerwey said. “You have to be patient. Our team, when it was together, was in first place on top of the entire league. … This whole situation is a means of growing. We have young players in the midfield, those guys are going to have more opportunities. If we can figure out how to score goals without Clint and Oba, that’s going to make us a better team.”
