Pluses and Minuses to Playing Sides not in Contention – Schmid
At the End of the Day, Players Have Pride
However, as Colorado and New England found out last Friday, not being in contention does not equate to not contending. So we decided to ask Sigi Schmid what the pros and cons were of playing against sides with no chance of qualification towards the end of a season.
Here’s what he had to say:
“The con side of it is that if you can jump on them and get a goal or two, they’re going to say well, doesn’t matter and maybe cave in completely.
But the other side of the equation is that they got nothing to play for and so what happens is the team sometimes cheat a little bit defensively, and so they then say ‘If you can score great, but if you don’t score, we’re not going to be honest, we’re not going to run with you on the overlap, we’re not going to get back and defend.’ So now all of a sudden, they end up having counter attacking situations and get opportunities the other way.
But then the other thing that goes on in teams like that is … that guys know they’re playing for their jobs. Some guys are going to get on the field who haven’t got on the field, so that means it’s a great opportunity for them. Other guys know that ‘hey, if I don’t show the coach now, he might not be here or I might not be here. I might be looking for a job. I might be in the unemployment line.’
At the end of the day, players have pride. If they didn’t have pride, they wouldn’t be professional athletes.”
Hear Sigi on the Pros and Cons of Opponents with Nothing to Play for
What do you think? Dangerous Dallas in store for Sounders, would you rather be in competition with your direct rivals or would you rather be playing the basement boys?
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Let’s play the basement boys and then crush the big boys in the playoffs!!!!
[...] Amerika talks to Sigi Schmid about the pluses and minuses of playing sides not in contention for the [...]
At this point i’d rather play DC in RFK than anyone else.
But seriously, playing teams with “nothing left to play for” can be VERY dangerous as they love to play spoilers. Our team isn’t veteran enough to not look past easier teams on the schedule.
Add to that this late resurgence of Cunningham, and you have a Dallas team that is coming into its own right now. Even though they have a very small chance of making the postseason (if at all), they are playing like a postseason team. I do not want to play them either way.