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Brian Schmetzer

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Brian Schmetzer
Personal information
Full name Brian Schmetzer
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s) Forward / Midfielder

Brian Schmetzer (born August 18, 1962 in Seattle, Washington) is a retired U.S. soccer player who played in the North American Soccer League, Major Indoor Soccer League and Western Soccer League. He coached the Seattle Sounders in the USL First Division for seven seasons, winning two championships. He was the 2002 USL-1 Coach of the Year. He is currently an assistant coach with the Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer.

Youth

Schmetzer was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington where he attended Nathan Hale High School. He learned to play soccer under the tutelage of his father Walter, who coached him with the Lake City Hawks youth team. Walter, a native of Germany, had played in the German Third Division before immigrating to the United States. Walter instilled a love for the game in Brian who became an outstanding youth and high school player.

Professional

After graduating from high school, Schmetzer chose to forego college and signed with the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League (NASL) in June 1980. He spent the 1980 season with the Sounders reserves before playing with the Sounders during the 1980-1981 NASL indoor season. In the 1981 Trans-Atlantic Challenge Cup, he came on with eight minutes left in the game against Celtic. However, he saw no time in the 1981 regular season. Then in 1982, he got his break. He saw time in six games that season, then became a regular in 1983. Unfortunately for him, the Sounders folded at the end of the season. With the demise of the Sounders, Schmetzer moved to the Tulsa Roughnecks for the 1984 NASL season. However, the league collapsed at the end of the season and Schmetzer moved again, this time to the San Diego Sockers. The Sockers had begun as an NASL franchise, but had twice spent the winter playing in Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). With the collapse of the NASL, the Sockers moved permanently to MISL. During the next decade they dominated the indoor game racking up championships nearly every season. Schmetzer was with the Sockers for four seasons, winning an MISL title in three of them. In 1988, Schemetzer moved to the Tacoma Stars. While there, he both played and he began his coaching career as an assistant coach with the Stars. Following the Sockers championship victory in 1985, San Diego loaned Schemtzer to F.C. Seattle of the Western Soccer Alliance. The team was created in 1984 after the Sounders folded to provide local and ex-NASL players an opportunity to play outside of local rec leagues. Jimmy Gabriel coached F.C. Seattle that season. Gabriel and Schmetzer would join up again when Schemtzer became head coach of the Sounders with Gabriel as his assistant. While Schmetzer played as a midfielder with Seattle, he scored both goals in a 2-1 victory over Brazilian club Santos on June 8, 1985. He played for the St. Louis Storm of the MISL for the 1990-1991 season. At the end of the season, he retired. In 1994, he came out of retirement to sign with the expansion Seattle Sounders of the American Professional Soccer League.[1] In 1995, he played for the Seattle SeaDogs of the Continental Indoor Soccer League.[2]

Coaching

While Schmetzer began his coaching career as a player-assistant coach with the Tacoma Stars, he became a dedicated assistant coach when he moved to the Seattle SeaDogs of the Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) in 1995. Fernando Clavijo coached the SeaDogs, which lasted only three seasons before folding. However, they did win the CISL championship their last season, 1997.

In 2002, the Seattle Sounders found themselves without a head coach. General manager Adrian Hanauer called Schmetzer and asked him if he was interested in the job. Schmetzer agreed and took the job that season. In 2004, he coached the Sounders to the A-League championship game where the team lost to the Montreal Impact. The next year the A-League became known as the USL First Division. In 2005, Schmetzer again took the Sounders to the championship game, but defeated the Richmond Kickers in penalty kicks to take the title.

Schmetzer was a finalist for the 2007 coach of the year award. Although the team had started the season 1–3–4, they went on to claim the Commissioner's Cup for the league's best regular season record. The team also had a 15-game unbeaten run that included MLS opponents in the U.S. Open Cup. The Sounders went on to beat the Atlanta Silverbacks 4-0 to win the league championship.[3]

Schmetzer was a candidate for the head coach position with Seattle Sounders FC. The job eventually went to Sigi Schmid while Schmetzer took the role as the top assistant.[4] Schmetzer filled in for Schmid against the Houston Dynamo on June 11, 2009. The Sounders won the game 2–1.[5]

References

  1. ^ 1994 Sounders roster
  2. ^ Sounders Set To Kick Off
  3. ^ Gaschk, Matt (September 30, 2007). "After slow start, Sounders win title, ponder future". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved January, 7 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  4. ^ Romero, José Miguel Romero (December 23, 2008). "Sounders FC hire Brian Schmetzer as top assistant". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
  5. ^ "Seattle 2-1 Houston: Ianni's dramatic winner". ESPN. Retrieved October 15, 2009.

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