When accepting the Seattle Sounders’ award for Seattle Sports Star Story of the Year on Wednesday night, head coach Brian Schmetzer told everyone in attendance at The Paramount Theatre exactly how they won their first MLS Cup.
It happened because defender Roman Torres convinced Schmetzer to let Torres take the final penalty kick.
“I said, ‘Roman, you’re not taking the kick,’” Schmetzer said. “We get through the first five and it ends up being a tie score and goes into sudden death. We never list [penalty takers No.] 6, 7 or 8 because that’s bad juju. You don’t want to jinx yourself, you want to win in five. I never told anybody who was going to take [No. 6]. So I’m scrambling a little bit.”
Torres continued to try and persuade Schmetzer into taking a kick. Cristian Roldan was still available, but Schmetzer finally caved and let Torres take the first shot in sudden death with a chance to win the title on the line after Toronto FC missed.
“He wanted to take a penalty,” Schmetzer said after the ceremony. “Sometimes that’s all you need as a coach because some guys get nervous. There might be better players, but it’s a pressure situation.”
Schmetzer said Roldan was slated to go No. 7, but his viable options after Roldan were thin because of injuries. Schmetzer said he could have switched the order of Torres and Roldan, but he stuck with his gut feeling and just watched like everybody else as Torres stepped up.
“The beauty of that moment for me was that that was the most relaxed I had been the entire game because I didn’t know where the ball was going to end up, I don’t think Roman didn’t know where the ball was going to end up, and the opposing goalkeeper never know where the ball was going to end up,” Schmetzer said. “And that’s how we won an MLS Cup championship.”
