Brian Schmetzer fully recognizes that the Sounders’ championship formula in 2016 – digging themselves a canyon-sized hole, and improbably climbing out of it all the way to the MLS Cup – is not necessarily one you want to try to replicate. He understands that teams might be allotted one such miracle a generation.
Therefore, as the Sounders found themselves knee-deep in new batch of woe to start 2017, Schmetzer hasn’t been keen on using last year’s wonder run as a rallying cry. Better to repair the problems early than to assume a bailout will once again magically present itself down the road.