TUKWILA, Wash. — The Seattle Sounders have been in this position before.
Last year, to be exact, and the scenarios are eerily similar. Seattle went into 2015’s Decision Day needing a win over Real Salt Lake to ensure its seventh consecutive playoff berth, with a draw or loss potentially leaving the team watching from the outside looking in.
Fast forward to 2016 and Seattle yet again hosts RSL with the same implications: Win and the Sounders are in; Draw or lose and they’ll need help from other results around the league to make it eight straight postseasons.
Seattle won 3-1 last year and will hope to replicate that success, but it’s easier said than done, especially against a team in RSL that has also yet to secure a playoff spot. Interim head coach Brian Schmetzer said he wishes his team was in a more advantageous position — one that could have happened had they not conceded late in its 2-1 loss to FC Dallas on Sunday — but still believes in the process he and the coaching staff have established.
The players, it seems too, are buying in and are fully focused on Decision Day.
“I’m confident that we can get a result and get into the playoffs and reward ourselves for the hard work we’ve put in to dig ourselves out of that hole,” said goalkeeper Stefan Frei. “It doesn’t matter if you go in as a top seed or just sneak in at the very end, there have been numerous teams that barely snuck in and ended up winning the trophy.
“We gotta get in, and then who knows?”
The Sounders have been clawing their way back into the postseason picture since Schmetzer took over in late July, and their loss in Frisco was just the second in 13 matches under his direction. Seattle has had two chances to clinch in its last two matches, but has come up empty.
“Would I deem the season a success if we make it to the playoffs in some ways? Sure,” said Schmetzer. “But that’s not our ultimate success or ultimate goal by any stretch of the imagination. Not at all.”
There are myriad ways the Sounders can make the postseason, but Schmetzer wanted to make it clear that simply making the playoffs isn’t good enough. It’s a stepping stone to try and help the club secure its first league title.
“I think your definition of success is winning MLS Cup or winning trophies,” Schmetzer said. “That’s the way we look at it…This club has always been a winning club, that winning tradition holds true."
