August 11, 2026 • 9 mins
Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Brian Schmetzer joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the team ending its seven game losing streak with a 3-0 win at home with three more home games ahead, the many injuries the team has suffered, what is behind the amount, and statuses for all of his hurt players, plus tomorrow’s big match.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Duke of Duke Seafood and this hour is
brought to you by Duke Seafood. Why don't you make
it at Duke's night tonight. Reserve your table today at
Duke Seafood dot com. Now back to Softy and Dick
on Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ r FM.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I think a new tradition when the Sounders win a
game at Brian Schmicher's on the air with us, we
hum the Sounders them Thong theme, Thong, Jackson jump in here.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Isn't that fun? See? That's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Run, It's fun, run fun Right now to the Sounders
finally won a freaking game. I got you know what,
there's a big difference boys, between losing seven in a
row at eight in a row.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I don't know what it is, it just sounds totally different.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I wonder if our next guest agrees with us the
head coach, if you're now one and oh when their
last one game? There we go Brian Schmetzer with us
on the radio program. Coach, welcome back to the win column,
big boy, how are you well?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Thanks for being a blast half full tid guy, because
oh you know what we needed that?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah? You did you did well? I think we figured
it out. By the way, you just suck on grass, man.
I'm sorry, there's no other way around it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It's the turf. You get back on turf and you
win a game.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So all this talk about changing lumin field from turf
to grass, get it, forget it.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
We're not doing that. We're that conversation's over. Are you
with us?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Well? Yeah, I mean there was some controversy there when
the owner of the new owner of the Hawks, you know,
brought it up. I don't know if he meant to
bring it up or somebody asked him, but look, we
still love to play on grass, but yeah, we're want
to know on turf. So let's let's go, baby.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
And it was a three to zero win.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Give us your thoughts.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
I mean, Carataro is not exactly a great team, but
when you're on a losing streak, it doesn't really matter
who you beat.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Right, we gotta beat who's ever in front of it, Dick.
I mean, you know, we look the teamless, struggling for sure,
and I was thinking a ways how to you know,
turn them around. And we had those league games that
were a little bit different than Teluca because Luca Teluca
was going to be a heavy lift, even with our starters.
I mean that that's a no MLS team has gone
(02:13):
in there and won. So that was, you know, challenging
to say the least. But you know, we needed to
believe again that we could win, you know, and I
talked to him about, Okay, we got the tactics here
and this is what we're going to try and do.
But you guys actually got to believe this. You got
to actually believe that we can win. And sure as heck,
the kid Seba Gomez, you know, he scores that goal
(02:36):
in the fourth minute, just all the words I said
before the game, they all started to believe that they
could win.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, now there's no doubt. Man, The confidence, the belief
has got to be there for sure. But let me
ask you this. You had a seven game losing streak.
We haven't talked in a couple of weeks. How much
of all of that? And I know you hate doing this, right,
you hate using injuries as excuse, but this was an inordinate, insane,
(03:04):
right amount of injuries. How much do you allow your staff,
yourself to chuck up that seven game losing streak to
just a stupid number of guys getting hurt.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Well, we internally, of course, we're talking about it and
the conversations we've been having with you know, Craig Wible
and our medical staff and what can we do different,
what can we learn and not just the medical guys
what they do in the gym and in the treatment room,
but how that message meshes whish with what we did
(03:37):
out on the field. You know, we we we searched
long and hard to try and figure out what went
wrong with with all these injuries, and we couldn't find
a definite trend because each injury was just a little different.
And yeah, it punches you in the mouth because look,
Peter de Levega when he stepped on the field, I mean,
the fans are going nuts, and he almost scored, and
(03:59):
you know, it just been such a great, you know,
homecoming for the kid. If he would have gone out
in the field and scored and then he goes down
after seven minutes, they just like the air lets out
of the balloon.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
So no indications from the medical staff why this is happening,
because it does seem like there are specific types of injuries,
like muscle injuries that keep coming up.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, the muster injuries are the ones that are biting
us in the butt this year. But it's you know,
Imar's recovering from a hamstring injury and then he does
his calf and Paul Ariola, who's a little guy, good,
super good athlete, jumps leaps in the air against Portland,
he comes down, Funny does his calf. So a bigger
(04:44):
guy coming off an injury, a little fit guy just
doing something weird to calf poles. But they're totally different situations, Dick,
So we just can't figure it out.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, well, Dela Vega came back from a knee injury
and then strained his quad after seven minutes on the field,
So where's he at now?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Man, Well, this this has now gotten to the point
where we're calling in you know, all the all the
second opinions and trying to get it. We've got another
MRI coming on the kid today. We're going to get
those results read. We'll have those results tomorrow. But you know,
it's just really unfortunate. And you know, look, Petro's worked
(05:26):
hard at becoming a better athlete, but you know, maybe
he's just you know, maybe he's just dumb lucker. Maybe
it's just that, you know, the turf for you know,
the situation he finds himself in. We don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
How about you.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
I'mar's quad injury. How long is he out?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, it's calf injury. He's looking towards the end of
the month. Look the good news, Dick on the injury
front is Christian's inching his way forward. Hassani Dotson's inching
his way forward. You know, if I get them for
you know, maybe the Cincinnati game at the end of
that three game week, maybe we're talking about some reinforcements,
(06:04):
if not at Chicago at the end of the month,
if we want to play it.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Safe, Okay, what about Jordan Morris.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Morris is in there with in that kind of same group.
He's a little bit behind Hassani and Christian, So I
would I would say that Jordan has a good shot
at Chicago at the end of the month.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Let's continue with the all stars. How about Christian role.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Dan well, Christians, Yeah, him and Hassani could be there,
could be available for that Cincinnati game at the end
of the three game week. But you know, realistically, he's
such a vital piece of the puzzle. We don't want
to bring him back too fast and have a setback.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, Brian Schmetz was with us right at the League's
Cup tomorrow, last of three in a row, right against Guadalajara.
Talk about that before you resume MLS play on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Well, massive club Chievus Guadalajara is one of the two
three biggest clubs in Mexico, and uh, you know, look,
they're out of the tournament as well, so I think
they're gonna play a reserve heavy lineup. We're gonna we're
gonna make some changes as well because we've got a
three game week coming up. I'm gonna start some young kids.
I'm gonna give some eyes opportunity, and then I've got
(07:20):
a veteran bench that when the second half rules around,
we're gonna try and win this thing because you know
this is Look, it was only one game, and so
we want to keep the momentum going, even if it's
starting with the young guys and bringing the senior guys
on after after the after the second half.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
All right, I want to give us a Scooby snack
on which kids are going to bring up.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Well, you've seen a couple. I mean, you've seen Stuart
Hawkins and Tina Lopez and Seba Gomez. Uh we we
We've got a couple of other young players that you
know are gonna feature in the in the in the mix,
Gallatin Fenu center back. We're high on Edson Carle Another
(08:05):
young player, Ryan Sailor, the udub product that came from Miami,
is gonna see his first action of the year. You know,
he's he's a little older, he's not a young guy,
but you know, we're gonna we're gonna roll him out
there and see what he can do, how he can
help the squad. So some new faces out there, but
they're gonna they're gonna work hard, and they're going to
(08:26):
try and get us another victory to keep the train
moving down the tracks.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I love it all right, Well, keep it going. When
you guys are playing for the MLS Cup later this year,
we can look back at this win over Carataro and
say that's where it all turned around, all right, So
keep the faith.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I love it. See, I love it all.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Right, man. We'll talk in a week seehim.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Coach take care seeks.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Brian Schmetzer with us on the air. We're gonna head
the Detroit Terry and Arnold. Good guy, bad guy, good player,
bad player? Do we want him? Do we not want him?
What's the deal man? We're gonna find out next on No.
Three three k j R f MM
This is Duke of Duke Seafood and this hour is
brought to you by Duke Seafood. Why don't you make
it at Duke's night tonight. Reserve your table today at
Duke Seafood dot com. Now back to Softy and Dick
on Sports Radio ninety three point three kJ r FM.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
I think a new tradition when the Sounders win a
game at Brian Schmicher's on the air with us, we
hum the Sounders them Thong theme, Thong, Jackson jump in here.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Isn't that fun? See? That's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Run, It's fun, run fun Right now to the Sounders
finally won a freaking game. I got you know what,
there's a big difference boys, between losing seven in a
row at eight in a row.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I don't know what it is, it just sounds totally different.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I wonder if our next guest agrees with us the
head coach, if you're now one and oh when their
last one game? There we go Brian Schmetzer with us
on the radio program. Coach, welcome back to the win column,
big boy, how are you well?
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Thanks for being a blast half full tid guy, because
oh you know what we needed that?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah? You did you did well? I think we figured
it out. By the way, you just suck on grass, man.
I'm sorry, there's no other way around it.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
It's the turf. You get back on turf and you
win a game.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
So all this talk about changing lumin field from turf
to grass, get it, forget it.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
We're not doing that. We're that conversation's over. Are you
with us?
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Well? Yeah, I mean there was some controversy there when
the owner of the new owner of the Hawks, you know,
brought it up. I don't know if he meant to
bring it up or somebody asked him, but look, we
still love to play on grass, but yeah, we're want
to know on turf. So let's let's go, baby.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
And it was a three to zero win.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Give us your thoughts.
Speaker 6 (01:46):
I mean, Carataro is not exactly a great team, but
when you're on a losing streak, it doesn't really matter
who you beat.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Right, we gotta beat who's ever in front of it, Dick.
I mean, you know, we look the teamless, struggling for sure,
and I was thinking a ways how to you know,
turn them around. And we had those league games that
were a little bit different than Teluca because Luca Teluca
was going to be a heavy lift, even with our starters.
I mean that that's a no MLS team has gone
(02:13):
in there and won. So that was, you know, challenging
to say the least. But you know, we needed to
believe again that we could win, you know, and I
talked to him about, Okay, we got the tactics here
and this is what we're going to try and do.
But you guys actually got to believe this. You got
to actually believe that we can win. And sure as heck,
the kid Seba Gomez, you know, he scores that goal
(02:36):
in the fourth minute, just all the words I said
before the game, they all started to believe that they
could win.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, now there's no doubt. Man, The confidence, the belief
has got to be there for sure. But let me
ask you this. You had a seven game losing streak.
We haven't talked in a couple of weeks. How much
of all of that? And I know you hate doing this, right,
you hate using injuries as excuse, but this was an inordinate, insane,
(03:04):
right amount of injuries. How much do you allow your staff,
yourself to chuck up that seven game losing streak to
just a stupid number of guys getting hurt.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Well, we internally, of course, we're talking about it and
the conversations we've been having with you know, Craig Wible
and our medical staff and what can we do different,
what can we learn and not just the medical guys
what they do in the gym and in the treatment room,
but how that message meshes whish with what we did
(03:37):
out on the field. You know, we we we searched
long and hard to try and figure out what went
wrong with with all these injuries, and we couldn't find
a definite trend because each injury was just a little different.
And yeah, it punches you in the mouth because look,
Peter de Levega when he stepped on the field, I mean,
the fans are going nuts, and he almost scored, and
(03:59):
you know, it just been such a great, you know,
homecoming for the kid. If he would have gone out
in the field and scored and then he goes down
after seven minutes, they just like the air lets out
of the balloon.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
So no indications from the medical staff why this is happening,
because it does seem like there are specific types of injuries,
like muscle injuries that keep coming up.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, the muster injuries are the ones that are biting
us in the butt this year. But it's you know,
Imar's recovering from a hamstring injury and then he does
his calf and Paul Ariola, who's a little guy, good,
super good athlete, jumps leaps in the air against Portland,
he comes down, Funny does his calf. So a bigger
(04:44):
guy coming off an injury, a little fit guy just
doing something weird to calf poles. But they're totally different situations, Dick,
So we just can't figure it out.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yeah, well, Dela Vega came back from a knee injury
and then strained his quad after seven minutes on the field,
So where's he at now?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Man, Well, this this has now gotten to the point
where we're calling in you know, all the all the
second opinions and trying to get it. We've got another
MRI coming on the kid today. We're going to get
those results read. We'll have those results tomorrow. But you know,
it's just really unfortunate. And you know, look, Petro's worked
(05:26):
hard at becoming a better athlete, but you know, maybe
he's just you know, maybe he's just dumb lucker. Maybe
it's just that, you know, the turf for you know,
the situation he finds himself in. We don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
How about you.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
I'mar's quad injury. How long is he out?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Well, it's calf injury. He's looking towards the end of
the month. Look the good news, Dick on the injury
front is Christian's inching his way forward. Hassani Dotson's inching
his way forward. You know, if I get them for
you know, maybe the Cincinnati game at the end of
that three game week, maybe we're talking about some reinforcements,
(06:04):
if not at Chicago at the end of the month,
if we want to play it.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Safe, Okay, what about Jordan Morris.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Morris is in there with in that kind of same group.
He's a little bit behind Hassani and Christian, So I
would I would say that Jordan has a good shot
at Chicago at the end of the month.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
Let's continue with the all stars. How about Christian role.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Dan well, Christians, Yeah, him and Hassani could be there,
could be available for that Cincinnati game at the end
of the three game week. But you know, realistically, he's
such a vital piece of the puzzle. We don't want
to bring him back too fast and have a setback.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Well, Brian Schmetz was with us right at the League's
Cup tomorrow, last of three in a row, right against Guadalajara.
Talk about that before you resume MLS play on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Well, massive club Chievus Guadalajara is one of the two
three biggest clubs in Mexico, and uh, you know, look,
they're out of the tournament as well, so I think
they're gonna play a reserve heavy lineup. We're gonna we're
gonna make some changes as well because we've got a
three game week coming up. I'm gonna start some young kids.
I'm gonna give some eyes opportunity, and then I've got
(07:20):
a veteran bench that when the second half rules around,
we're gonna try and win this thing because you know
this is Look, it was only one game, and so
we want to keep the momentum going, even if it's
starting with the young guys and bringing the senior guys
on after after the after the second half.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
All right, I want to give us a Scooby snack
on which kids are going to bring up.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
Well, you've seen a couple. I mean, you've seen Stuart
Hawkins and Tina Lopez and Seba Gomez. Uh we we
We've got a couple of other young players that you
know are gonna feature in the in the in the mix,
Gallatin Fenu center back. We're high on Edson Carle Another
(08:05):
young player, Ryan Sailor, the udub product that came from Miami,
is gonna see his first action of the year. You know,
he's he's a little older, he's not a young guy,
but you know, we're gonna we're gonna roll him out
there and see what he can do, how he can
help the squad. So some new faces out there, but
they're gonna they're gonna work hard, and they're going to
(08:26):
try and get us another victory to keep the train
moving down the tracks.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I love it all right, Well, keep it going. When
you guys are playing for the MLS Cup later this year,
we can look back at this win over Carataro and
say that's where it all turned around, all right, So
keep the faith.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
I love it. See, I love it all.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Right, man. We'll talk in a week seehim.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
Coach take care seeks.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
You bet.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Brian Schmetzer with us on the air. We're gonna head
the Detroit Terry and Arnold. Good guy, bad guy, good player,
bad player? Do we want him? Do we not want him?
What's the deal man? We're gonna find out next on No.
Three three k j R f MM
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