Brian Schmetzer and his staff of assistants sat around a conference table at Starfire Sports, attempting to prepare themselves for the week ahead but still hung up on what had happened 48 hours earlier.



The tone of the first coaches’ meeting of each week varies, but the agenda is usually similar. They first go over the big-picture takeaways from the previous match, every assistant providing illustrative video clips from his position group. They then discuss the training agenda for the week, and begin to sketch out the rough draft of the game plan for their next opponent.



“We usually find time to talk about other news,” Schmetzer describes. “We read all the headlines and talk shop.”



Last Tuesday morning, in the aftermath of Seattle’s 3-2 home loss to Sporting Kansas City the Sunday night prior, Schmetzer and his staff never made it past step one. Not even a full day off had completely cured their lingering...