Schmetzer Pays Tribute to Danny and Leighton

Timing and Sheer Plethora of Talent was a Factor

February 13

A day after Seattle Sounders legends, Danny Jackson and Leighton O’Brien were released from pre-season training camp, Brian Schmetzer talked openly to Prost Amerika about the thought processes that led to the decisions. Schmetzer is currently Sigi Schmid’s assistant coach at Sounders FC, but was the head coach at the Seattle Sounders in past years and goes back a long way with both Jackson and O’Brien.

Jackson was “On the Cusp” of Selection

Schmetzer was quick to show his appreciation for the men who had been regulars in his team.

“Those are never easy conversations to have. I’m glad I sat in with them, because I wanted to make sure that those guys knew that I had appreciated their years of service.And we told them that. And we told them that, especially in Danny’s case, it was a very very difficult decision for us to make. He was right on the cusp of being included in that group of 20.

What played in Danny’s favour the most is just his character, whether he speaks German or not, I don’t know how important that is. Obviously Sigi and I are from German backgrounds. Danny’s character is of the highest quality. Sigi saw that up close and personal. And that was, as we were going through our discussions with the staff, that was one of the things Sigi commented on, and actually told Danny when we were having a meeting, that he was very impressed with Danny’s character. That’s why it made it an even tougher decision as well,” Schmetzer added.

“There’s a lot That Can Happen between now and March 19th”

Schmetzer made clear that one of the factors behind the timing of the decision was to give players time to make other plans. One wonders what may happen if Tyrone Marshall doesn’t turn out to be as good as they hoped. Is it possible Schmetzer had the same thing in mind?

“In the MLS, there’s lots of things that can happen between now and March 19th. He had done very well and it was a tough decision for Sigi to make but at the end of the day, to be fair to Danny, we just wanted to let him know earlier rather than string him along,” Schmetzer said.

Sheer Number and Quality of Attacking Midfielders Hurt Leighton

Many observers of the build-up to the season have commented that the club’s putative roster is utterly blessed with attacking and creative midfielders, from Sweden’s Freddie Ljungberg, Gambia’s Sanna Nyassi to Steve Zakuani, who we haven’t asked if he wants to be considered English or Congolese yet. With Fredy Montero, showing great versatility too, there was just no room for another one, even one of Leighton’s tested quality and experience. That was the main factor behind the decision to let Leighton go, but as Schmetzer explains, Sig also has a preference for younger men in the reserve slots.

“That was basically it. When you look at two guys, Freddie Ljungberg and Vagenas, that are still nicked out with niggly injuries, I thought Leighton might have a chance. But as we further discussed the situation, with Alonso and Brad Evans having done a good job during some of the training games; Fredy Montero, we’re getting to know his personality. He likes to drop in, almost like an attacking midfielder, and with Leighton, it was just sheer numbers there.

Sigi’s style of coaching is, if we need a reserve player, he’d almost prefer to have a younger up and coming player in those positions rather than a tried and true veteran. So I think those two factors came into play a little bit with Leighton.”

Roger Far from Over and Out

Much as this week has proven a tremendous disappointment for longer term fans of the team, the news hasn’t been bad for every USL Sounder. Last year, Roger Levesque could have been described as the unluckiest player on the Seattle Sounders roster. He got injured when the team was playing well, and by the time he was trying to gain full match fitness, the team was so blitzed by injury, that Roger played several games while clearly not fully fit. By his own admission, he struggled and his many fans empathised while admiring his willingness to help the cause out while not fully fit.

However, Roger appears to have kept the same never say die spirit but combine it with exceptional form, full fitness and quite a bit of timing by February 2009. All reports coming back to Seattle have implied that he is playing well, training hard and scoring goals as Schmid makes the final decisions for 2009.

Schmetzer was giving nothing away when pressed about Roger’s chances:

“I can only say that he’s still with us. He has done extremely well in my opinion, but he has not made it on the team yet. So he still has a little bit of hard work to do. But Roger scored a very good goal in our game on Wednesday. He’s played his way into contention for one of the 20 roster slots just by being the Roger Levesque that we all know and love, that we’ve seen the last four or five years in Seattle. So he has done well but we haven’t made any final decision there, or for that matter with Zach Scott who is the other one still in camp.”

Sounders FC have their last match of their California trip against San Jose tonight at California Poly, San Luis Obispo. Kick off is 7pm. The squad returns to Seattle on Saturday.

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