On Tuesday, Seattle Sounders GM and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey held a Facebook live chat. He was asked various questions throughout the 12 minute chat but I have highlighted a few for you here.

When he was asked what are the factor that will go into the decision about the head coaching position and Brian Schmetzer, Lagerwey had this to say.

“Simply the results of the team are a big factor. I’ve enjoyed working with Brian. I’ve said previously that I’ve worked with four coaches in the last four years. I’ve been fortunate enough to take all of them to the postseason. Definitely, have enjoyed working with Brian and we prefer to keep him in place and I think he’s done a good job and I think his message has been heard. Now our goal now, together, is to see how far we can take this team in the playoffs.”

The key phrase in all of that is when he stated: “we prefer to keep him in place”. Regardless of how the Sounders finish in the playoffs, it looks to be a good sign for Schmetzer. Obviously, a deep playoff run will help his cause even more.

Chat with Sounders GM and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey Posted by Seattle Sounders FC on Tuesday, October 25, 2016

He also talked about the high point of the season was when the team was able to go on the road in Carson, CA and beat LA for the first time since 2009. He also mentioned that it was the “Jordan Morris’ coming out party”.

The low point of the season was obviously the 3-0 shellacking the team received from Sporting Kansas City.

“Probably one that everyone’s identified. The game at Kansas City. Just a tough day, really hot. We weren’t able to have a great effort on the night and kind of the cumulation of weeks and months of somethings and just felt like that was probably the low point and fortunately for us, we have been able to rebound from there.”

Lagerwey was not surprised that there was hardly any celebration coming from the players after beating Real Salt Lake to qualify for the playoffs.

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m told that consistent with Sounders tradition over here. You don’t necessarily have to celebrate when you make the playoffs. In this business, it’s important to be happy and appreciate those moments. We want to create those moments, we want to enrich people’s lives.”

There was a lot to say when he was asked what was different in this team compared to the one that made the playoffs in 2015.

“Well, we are a little younger and I am hoping we can stay a little healthier. We have four dynamic starters under 30-years-old (Joevin Jones, Cristian Roldan, Jordan Morris, Nicolas Lodeiro). I think long term we need to keep pushing that envelope but that’s a better position for us physically then what we were in last year. We are still surrounded with really key veterans in a lot of spots that have gotten things done in big games for a long time and look, we are going to take another shot at this. We have the ability with this group and this group of personalities to make a deep playoff run and that certainly has to be the goal. The goal has to be to win MLS Cup and not just to be happy that we got in however arduous the journey. In order to make that payoff, we have to realize our potential and try to take this all the way.”