On July 25th, the Seattle Sounders FC sat with a record of 6-12-2 (20 points), 10 points out of a playoff spot in ninth place with 14 games to go. The next two days for the Sounders turned out to save their season.

July 26

After an uninspired 3-0 loss to Kansas City the day before, the Sounders fired longtime Head Coach Sigi Schmidt.

“It wasn’t necessarily my decision alone, but I’d say I took the lead on that and decided that this was the right time,” majority owner Adrian Hanauer said.

This was a difficult decision for management after leading the Sounders since their inaugural season in 2009. Schmidt lead the Sounders to four U.S. Open Cup titles and won the Supporters Shield in 2008, a title awarded for the best regular-season record.

The Sounders promoted Assistant Coach Brian Schmetzer as the interim head coach.

“We’re going to have an attacking, scoring, tough-nosed defensive team that wins games,” Schmetzer said.

July 27

One of the biggest problems for the Sounders was getting beat in the midfield with their three midfielders.

The Sounders signed attacking midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro and midfielder Alvaro Fernandez. The Sounders changed their formation to a 4-2-3-1. This formation has only one attacker, while adding three attacking midfielders and two defensive midfielders.

The Playoff Push

During the Sounders’ first 20 matches, Seattle scored 21 goals including two or less goals in every match besides a 5-0 win against FC Dallas. During the last 14 games, the Sounders scored 22 goals.

Lodeiro has been one of the biggest impact players for the Sounders, scoring four goals and assisting in eight, all while only playing in 12 games. His impact has been in the middle of the field, and he has proved to be one of the most most creative players passing the ball — something the Sounders lacked.

With its star player, Clint Dempsey missing games from U.S. National team tournaments and after returning back to the team he out for the season with an irregular heartbeat, the scoring duties have been put on Jordan Morris who is leading the Sounders with 12 goals.   

Since the slow start, the Sounders have a record of 7-2-4 good for fifth place in the Western Conference, with the best six teams making the playoffs.
Seattle will be playing against the fourth place team in the Western Conference Real Salt Lake on Sunday. The Sounders have 45 points with two teams currently behind by a one point and with one game left to go the playoff possibilities are endless.

This story has been updated of a misspelled a name