Schmid: Sounders health, salaries, Open Cup

The Sounders are off the practice field for another day. Afterward, coach Sigi Schmid gave a brief injury update: Nelson Valdez still limited but improving, Chad Marshall held out with undisclosed issue but feeling OK, and Michael Farfan setback (adductor).

Schmid also had these remarks on a couple of news issues from this morning, the U.S. Open Cup fourth round MLS pairings and the release of MLS player salary information:

On the salaries going public: I try not to look at it. I sort of have any idea what they are anyway. The mechanisms in the league are so strange that how completely accurate those are is often up to judgement. It is what it is. I know that’s something that’s not common in every work environment that you’re in, that you know what every employee makes that’s with you. It’s something that’s been that way since the league has started. I think guys are aware of it and I think they all can handle it. They’re all adults.

On starting Open Cup and starting at home: It’s good to be at home in the first game. It’s also good because it means we’ll be able to watch the game on the 14^th, which if we had been on the road that might have been impossible. We’re excited about that. ... My belief has always been every game you enter into, you enter into the game to win. Now who you play in those games – do you play some young guys? Do you rest some young guys? – that’s something that you take into account where you are. We’re coming off a break. We’ve got a game at Red Bull that weekend, so we want to take that into account as well. It’s possible their Open Cup game is on a Tuesday, so they get a little more rest. We have to look at all of that. But the Open Cup has served us well in the past in that sometimes when we’ve struggled in regular season, having good results in the Open Cup has propelled us also in league.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Schmid: Sounders health, salaries, Open Cup."