Schmid talks tactics on eve of true must-win game
Here’s some of what coach Sigi Schmid had to say on the eve of the Sounders’ win-or-out CCL match Wednesday with the Vancouver Whitecaps:
On facing Vancouver five days after winning there 3-0 in MLS: It’s always a challenge when you play the same team again. Sometimes there’s a little animosity left over from the game before. I have a lot of respect for (Vancouver coach) Carl Robinson. I think he’s done a great job with them. We all know it’s a game where if they win they advance, if we win we advance. A loss of a tie doesn’t get them anywhere. A (tie) means their last game at Olimpia becomes really, really important. I’m sure he doesn’t want that to be the case, either. I think both teams are going to come out of the field and try to win the game.
On the clarity of a ture must-win game: It’s definitely nice. I hope at some point – I know they’re definitely looking at it – they’re going to try and align the Champions League with the calendar year, so it’s more appropriate to all of us, so we’re playing the group stage at the beginning of the year and we’re playing the quarterfinals and semifinals in the last half of the year, so it makes sense that each team is in rhythm. But having the clarity is a good thing. I think our group is easily the toughest group. You look at the standings, there are other groups that are close in points, but you look at the disparity between teams. But you look at our group, with Olimpia and Vancouver, every game has been competitive, every game has been tight. It’s definitely, whatever you want to call it: the group of death or it’s the most difficult group: the MDG.
On if chippyness is building between teams that have played so often: Not really. Vancouver is a team, they have their style, the way they want to play, and they try to stick to that and I think we’ve got a feeling as to how we can play against them. We got beat here at home, but we got beat on set pieces. So we’ve got to make sure that we’re sharp and that we tidy that up.
On tactics: The key for us against them is possession. The more we keep possession, the better form of defense it is, and making sure that we don’t’ give them the chance to counter and stretch us, because they’re an excellent counterattacking team. That’s evident by their road record and theyr’e also a team that has that pace to get behind you.
On the younger roster in the first CCL meeting: It gives the team confidence, but on the same token they played a young team in that game. So it was basically our young guys and their young guys. Again, we gave up a set piece goal and we had to come back and tie the game up on Lamar’s goal. It will probably be a little different lineup from them this time around. I see maybe them mixing it a little bit because of some injury situations they have with (Pedro) Morales and (Steven) Beitashour. So for us, we have to see where we’re at as well. It might not be all young guys against all young guys. It might be.
On if tactics remain even in lineups change: No, it changes. I’m a coach who believes in this: You’ve got to take advantage of the stengths of the players that are on the field. Same for them. If they have different guys on the field, if they have more pace on the outside, if they play somebody like (Darrin) Mattocks, they try to use that to their advantage. Who are we going to play up front? We’ll try to use that to our advantage a little more.
On that Saturday result: Anytime you win a game that helps you. Anytime you feel more confident and you start building that energy within a group.
On managing personnel with MLS game coming up Sunday: The most important thing for us in the league because of the position that we’re in and we want to continue to gain points and push ourselves up. Kansas City plays a game Wednesday night as well – they’re at Houston – so that helps because they’re in the same sort of rhythm as we are. We’ve had so many injuries this year, we don’t want to put any of our players into a situation where we think we’re putting them in jeopardy of having a long-term injury.
On the health of Osvaldo Alonso: He was fine. He went through training today. We just wanted him to go through the warmup and do a little individual work, and he went through all of that. … We think he’s fine.
On tactics in a true must-win game: I think you approach every game, you want to win it. So I think from that standpoint it’s not different. The approach maybe changes in terms of later in the game, second half, how we approach it. The approach changes whether we have a lead, maybe the approach changes a little bit.
On if Vancouver also will play for a win even though a draw would not eliminate them: I think both teams are going to come out to try to win the game. They don’t want to have a Wednesday game in the last week of the league that is important for them advancing – or else they’re going to send down a reserve team and say, ‘OK, we’re not going to advance, we don’t care.’ I think both teams are going to come out tomorrow trying to win the game.
This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Schmid talks tactics on eve of true must-win game."