The secret behind the Seattle Sounders' MLS dynasty? Efficiency
On the statistics alone, Toronto FC had the edge in Sunday’s MLS Cup final, claiming 65% of possession, attempting 408 passes in the attacking third compared to the Seattle Sounders’ comparatively low tally of 184 and registering just as many total shots (16) as their Pacific Northwest hosts. The Sounders are a team with a track record of going against the numerical grain, though.
It was a similar story in their Western Conference final win over Los Angeles FC, the win that propelled the Sounders to their first ever home MLS Cup final in franchise history. Against the runaway Supporters’ Shield winners, Seattle scored three of their five shots on target, winning 3-1 despite claiming only a 31% share of the ball. Even in the 2-0 Western Conference semi final win over Real Salt Lake, they only saw 39% of possession.
This is a team, and a franchise, that has made efficiency their calling card. Toronto FC might have had the numerical and territorial advantage on Sunday, much like LAFC and RSL had before them, but the Seattle Sounders made the most of what they had, demonstrating an edge that eluded their Canadian counterparts throughout.
The Sounders are Major League Soccer’s original super franchise, as illustrated by the record 69,274 crowd that packed CenturyLink Field on Sunday, but while the likes of Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC have recently set new standards in their signing of star players on big money contracts, Seattle have shrewdly assembled a team that has made three MLS Cup finals in four years. For the Sounders, this is now an unparalleled period of success. Some may even call it a dynasty.
It wasn’t just the numbers in the possession column that the Sounders inverted by lifting their clinching their second championship in four years, but those on the balance sheet too. Toronto FC’s wage bill (base salary) for 2019 stood at a whopping $19,936,487 (the highest in the league), while Seattle’s was only $11,154,376. Even accounting for guaranteed salary figures, the Sounders paid out just 56% of what their MLS Cup opponents signed over this year.
Seattle’s wage bill still represents the sixth highest in MLS, but they get so much more for their money than so many of their rivals. Of the 10 highest paid players in the league, not one plays for the Sounders. Nicolas Lodeiro was ranked as MLS’s 11th-highest paid player in 2019, but compare the Uruguayan’s $2.5m salary to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s league-high pay packet of $7.2m and such spending still looks somewhat prudent. For further context, TFC captain Michael Bradley’s 2019 salary was $6.5m.
Were it not for the eye-catching exerts of Atlanta United and LAFC over the past two seasons, the Seattle Sounders might have been afforded the attention they clearly deserve. They have shown themselves to be among the smartest in the league in recruitment, even if it took the wider MLS community until the latter rounds of the play-offs to truly recognize what Seattle had in the form of Raul Ruidiaz, the Peruvian forward who out-scored Ibrahimovic, Josef Martinez and Carlos Vela over the post-season.
Then there’s Brian Schmetzer, the unassuming and humble character on the touch line who is woven into the very fabric of the Seattle soccer scene. Schmetzer isn’t Bob Bradley or Tata Martino or even Frank de Boer. In fact, he could likely walk past most American soccer fans without attracting as much as a glance, but the 57-year-old now warrants a mention as one of the best coaches the country has ever produced.
This play-off series was a showcase of Schmetzer’s underappreciated value as a tactician and a problem solver. Against LAFC, the Sounders were faced with Vela, a player who had scored a record-breaking 36 goals in 32 appearances, and yet Schmetzer was able to come up with a plan to contain him. At half-time of Sunday’s MLS Cup final, everything was trending in Toronto FC’s direction only for Schmetzer to make some adjustments and turn the match towards Seattle.
Maybe Schmetzer would be more readily praised if he looked less like a middle school teacher, but he now has two MLS Cup winners’ medals to argue his point for him. Not that Schmetzer seems like the sort of person who will lose sleep over a lack of credit. A large part of his allure is in the way he operates away from the spotlight, even when his team deserves one.
The Seattle Sounders are something of a contradiction. This is a franchise that first showed what was possible for soccer in North America, a team that plays in an NFL stadium and fills it, a club that counts a number of celebrities, including Macklemore, Russell Wilson, Ciara and Drew Carey, as part of its ownership and yet it’s their understated, under-the-radar efficiency that has made them such a force.