Brian Schmetzer’s tactics make up for Sounders’ injuries in huge 3-0 rout of FC Dallas in Western semis

Despite the loss of even more key players, Seattle Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer absolutely maximized the talents at his disposal against the best team (on paper) in the league on Sunday. The Sounders were underdogs going into the first leg of the conference semifinals but absolutely dominated FC Dallas in one of the most lopsided playoff performances in the club’s MLS history.

The 2016 season has been tumultuous for the Sounders; that barely needs to be said. A mid-season coaching change, new signings and a swath of injuries have all made things very difficult for Seattle. But I can’t praise interim Schmetzer enough, because he’s taken all of those hardships in stride and carried his team further than anyone thought they could go.

After the loss of Clint Dempsey for the season due to a heart condition, many people (including myself) thought the Sounders’ season was over. They had a few tough results right after losing him, sure, but they also had some pretty great ones. The big 4-2 win in Los Angeles was probably the most notable of those early post-Dempsey matches. As the end of the regular season wound down, the Sounders lost Brad Evans, Andreas Ivanschitz, Osvaldo Alonso and Nicolas Lodeiro at various times due to injuries and suspensions. Yet despite all those setbacks, Schmetzer still led his team to an 8-2-4 record to close out the season, sealing not only the playoffs but fourth place in the West.

Schmetzer already had to deal with the existing injuries against Sporting KC in the knockout round of the playoffs last week, and then he lost two of the players from that match to injury going into what should have been an extremely tough contest for even a full-strength Sounders squad. Sure, Nelson Valdez was the hero against KC, but he hadn’t score a goal in MLS play all season long. Putting him up top and pushing Jordan Morris out wide seemed incredibly risky at the time, but it paid off handsomely. And even with Mr. Sounder’s many contributions to the club over the years, putting Zach Scott in for his 350th appearance against one of the fastest attacks in the league seemed even more risky. Scott stood tall, though, repelling all of the attacks that Dallas threw at him.

In fact, it kind of seems like a miracle that Schmetzer’s starting XI did so much damage at all. Valdez had been ineffectual all season and hadn’t started as the lone striker in months. Previous head coach Sigi Schmid had tried to play Valdez there when nothing else was working for Seattle, and it was about as useful as anyone expected. Even though Morris’ best position is probably at forward, the lack of a Dempsey-type player behind him made his job that much more difficult. Putting him in an advanced left attacking-midfield position turned out to be exactly what the rookie needed to revitalize his game. Morris hasn’t scored since his brace against LA in September, but he picked up an excellent assist against Dallas and threatened its goal on more than one occasion.

The XI that Schmetzer put out against Dallas should not have worked. I was suspicious as to how effective Valdez would be up front and wondered why he didn’t just replace the injured Flaco Fernandez with another midfielder. But it worked wonders because he set up his team to attack Dallas, which was quite obviously set on hunkering down and taking a draw back home. The Sounders not only found a way to beat Dallas’ imposing central defense trio, but they also engineered a goal that completely negated their five-man backline on the third score. Joevin Jones found a perfect – I truly mean perfect – pass that split open the defense and put Nicolas Lodeiro in on goal.

For the second leg, Seattle heads to Dallas next Sunday, a place they haven’t managed to win at all season. In fact, Dallas only lost at home once in all of 2016. That’s the hard part. But luckily for the Sounders, they don’t need to win. It’s actually even OK if they lose. The Sounders could lose the match 4-1 and still progress to the next round of the playoffs. Ties in two-legged series are decided on away goals first, which is how the Sounders knocked FC Dallas out in this series in 2014 and were later knocked out themselves in the conference finals by LA. If they can hold on in Dallas, they’ll be through to the Western Conference finals again.

It’s quite worth noting that this 3-0 win is the first time the Sounders had ever won a playoff game by more than a single goal, let alone three against the current Supporters Shield and US Open Cup champions. No matter how far the Sounders go in the playoffs, this result and the run that led to it are surely enough to clinch the full-time job for Brian Schmetzer. His resilience, coaching style, and tactical nous have been absolutely sensational since taking over the team in July, and giving him anything less than the full-time gig would be a poor look for the club.

Spenser Davis also covers the Sounders for Sounder at Heart.