Sounders FC win special for Schmid
Former Columbus coach uses stout defending, luck in homecoming
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His ideal squad would play together over a period of time and the players would know each other's moves without thinking. Saturday night his expansion team did the Crew one (goal) better.
Sounders FC got a 1-0 victory that not only improved their playoff chances but ended the Crew's league-record 22-game home unbeaten streak, a mark that started last season under Schmid's watch.
It was quite a homecoming in his first game back to Columbus against a team he is quite familiar with -- 21 of the 24 Crew members played for him last season when it won the MLS Cup.
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"You're looking at players now that have 60, 70, 80 games together so there's a lot of what I call automized things going on on the field," he said. "Guys know, 'When I run here, he plays there. I'm going to run there.' There's a lot of automatic things happening. That's something we're trying to build in Seattle."
Seattle (10-7-11) secured the win on a Roger Levesque's first career goal in the 36th minute, a little luck and stout defending at the end.
Defender Tyrone Marshall got a glancing header on a shot by the Crew's Eddie Gaven and deflected it enough that the ball went off the right post in the 24th. Marshall later cleared a Steven Lenhart header off the line in the 71st minute to preserve the lead.
"We did what we had to do to get out of here," midfielder Brad Evans said of his former Crew teammates. "They're an awesome team. Everybody in this locker room respects them."
The biggest fortune to turn Seattle's way was MLS MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto missing the target on a penalty kick in the 83rd minute.
"The game of soccer is a strange thing. Last week in New England (a 2-1 loss) we thought we were a little bit unlucky," Schmid said. "We had good fortune on our side. It's not often Guillermo misses a PK. We had a post on our side. They had a post on their side.
"We had to dig down a little bit. The Crew is the best team in the league and for us to come in here and win 1-0 is something we're very proud of."
Schmid said his staff took a calculated gamble that Schelotto, who was 8-for-8 in his career on PKs, would do what he had done so often on video.
"We knew that Guille likes to go down the middle when he can," Schmid said. "We said, 'Just hold your ground, hold your ground and force him into making a decision.' He's not going to miss very often so we'll take it."
Schelotto shot wide left.
Levesque didn't miss his opportunity. Crew goalkeeper William Hesmer made the initial stop on Fredy Montero but left a gaping rebound.
"Montero put pressure on the goalie and he spilled it. I was in the right place at the right time," Levesque said.
Schmid made special mention of stopping the Crew's home streak that began following a loss on June 7, 2008.
"Streaks are sometimes made to be broken. It's something we talked about before the game in trying to accomplish that," he said. "When I was in LA it seemed like every time we played the Fire in Chicago they had some kind of streak going.
"This is a tough place to play. The Nordecke (supporters' section) is great. The atmosphere, you know you're at a soccer venue. You know you're at a soccer game."
Levesque said the team could tell the win meant a lot to Schmid.
"He had a great year last year, obviously, winning the MLS Cup. There was a little bit of pride coming in here with a new team," he said. "Columbus has shown the last couple of years they're a tough team to beat. They have the same guys together. You could see that in the first half when they were combining. They played some really good soccer. We were fortunate to come out of here with a win."
Schmid still has a fondness for the Crew (12-5-10) and his replacement, Robert Warzycha.
"I was joking with Robert a couple of nights before the game," Schmid said. "I said, 'We need the points more than you do and besides if we don't get the points we might play each other in the first round and we don't want to do that.'
"The Crew's the best team in the league and they showed that the way they came at us but we're showing that we're growing."
Craig Merz is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
