Sounders
Notebook: Team eager to fulfill its coach's promise

By Matt Massey
Special to The Seattle Times

Ryan Edwards

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The Seattle Sounders hope it's time to deliver on the league championship their coach promised about 18 months ago.

Emotionally charged during the club's news conference of landing a new home at Seahawks Stadium on Oct. 23, 2002, Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer guaranteed on three occasions "a championship, whether it's A-League or MLS, within two years."

Seattle didn't get that championship in 2003, advancing to the A-League's Western Conference finals only to lose two games to the Minnesota Thunder.

The Sounders finished 20-10-7 in 2003, Schmetzer's second season as coach and the team's first full campaign at Seahawks Stadium.

	Danny Jackson

"The players probably thought the coach was nuts," Schmetzer recalled of his title promise. "I said that. I don't regret it. I made a dramatic, bold statement to generate some excitement in the soccer community.

"When I was an assistant with the Seattle SeaDogs, head coach Fernando Clavijo said the same thing and achieved it."

The SeaDogs won the 1997 Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) with Schmetzer assisting Clavijo.

Schmetzer's bold commitment to winning a championship came out like this: "I'll flat out say it: With this facility and the soccer team I have, I'll guarantee a championship, whether it's A-League or MLS, within two years. I don't have any problem saying that."

Roger Levesque

In Schmetzer's first season as coach in 2002, the Sounders posted the second-best, regular-season record in A-League history at 23-4-1 and finished 24-7-1 overall. Schmetzer, a former Sounders player for five seasons, was named 2002 A-League Coach of the Year.

GM still eyes MLS

Last summer's tentative plans to build a $35 million, 20,000-seat, soccer-only stadium in Kent appear all but dead now that the Seattle Sounders have a suitable home at Seahawks Stadium. But that doesn't mean the Sounders moving up to Major League Soccer (MLS) affiliation is out of the question.

	Scott Jenkins

"Those plans for a soccer-only facility are on the serious back burner right now," Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer said April 20 at the club's media day. "If we figure out MLS here, it's most likely in this building (Seahawks Stadium).

"I feel like we're a lot closer to MLS when in reality I don't know if we're a lot closer."

Hanauer, in his third season as Sounders GM, said the Seattle franchise lacks a major investor to join MLS's plans for expansion. He indicated that smaller-scale investors are in line.

Darren Sawatzky

"We'd know in the next 60 days if there's still a chance for a (MLS) team in 2005," Hanauer said. "MLS would love us to be there by 2006. It's a money thing."

Hanauer said he would be willing to invest his own money into an MLS club in Seattle.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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