Sigi Schmid Reacts To A 3-1 Victory
The Sounders FC won 3-1 over Toronto FC on Saturday night, getting a hat trick from David Estrada in the victory. Afterward, head coach Sigi Schmid met with the media.
(Opening…) “It’s always good to start off the regular season with a win. That was something that we obviously had as a goal for ourselves. Whenever a guy gets a hat-trick like David Estrada got tonight, a great performance for him, but our team tactically did what we wanted to do. Early on we felt they played with a high line and we felt we could get in behind them with running off the ball, which we did quite a few times. They lost [Torsten] Frings do injury, that’s obviously a big part of their team and that came to help us. Ryan Johnson scores a great goal and keeps them in the game and it was a good thing David [Estrada] scores one at the other end.”
(On bouncing back tonight after a tough loss to Santos Laguna…) “Yeah, obviously we’re still disappointed with what happened down in Torreon. When you look at that, like I said it’s a 180-minute series and for 135 to 150 minutes we were up to the task and then we lost the plot somewhere. But it’s good for us to get back on track, to regain our confidence in ourselves. Obviously, Toronto [FC] is moving on to the semifinal round [of the CONCACAF Champions League]. It would have been nice if we could have moved on and played them as an opponent. It would have been a good series. It would have drawn great attendance. But I’m pleased with the character we showed tonight.”
(On David Estrada’s play…) “Well, everybody thought he was maybe a bad draft choice, but I felt like if we kept him around long enough maybe eventually I’d get something out of him so I wouldn’t look so bad [laughter]. No, David, obviously we moved him around an awful lot and it made it a little bit harder on him, but at the end of last season I think you saw all of the sudden things started to click with him a little bit more. Then once we realized that O’Brian White wouldn’t be out there for us right now, that we were short up front, we said, ‘Look, we’re going to stick you back up front. We think that’s your best spot.’ His work rate is unbelievable. Like I’ve said, nobody deserves it more in terms of the effort that they put in day-in and day-out. It’s fantastic. I remember watching him play as a freshman at UCLA and I thought his finishing was good and today with one exception, probably the breakaway in the first half he could have done a little better with, but the other three he finished fairly well.”
(On the importance of work ethic…) “Well, I think a lot of people have to look at that [Estrada’s performance] and say, ‘Hey, that’s what work does for you.’ You need 11 guys. There were a lot of other guys that did work today too. I thought Brad [Evans] and Ozzie [Osvaldo Alonso] were great in midfield today. Ozzie did a really good job on [Luis] Silva because I think Silva is going to be a very good player in this league and probably has a good shot at Rookie of the Year in this league and Ozzie shut him down pretty well. Brad kept us organized. So I was very happy.”
(On the decision to play Marc Burch…) “We just wanted to get a little bit fresher legs out there. We played a difficult game down there [in Mexico] and it was a difficult game for our defense. So we wanted to make a couple of changes, but we didn’t want to change too much. So [Patrick] Ianni, who I’ve always felt is a capable MLS center-back, so we felt he was the choice. Burch has trained well, has played well in the reserve games that we’ve played, so we felt him coming on and his ability as well to hit balls and be behind the defense is something that could help us in this game.”
(On Alonso’s injury…) “His was more a hit. Obviously the concern is when you see somebody go is it knee-to-knee, or is there something there. He’s got a little bit of a bruise or a stud-mark or something below the knee. But he said it was more just bad contact and he feels fine with his knee.”
(On the fans…) “Our fans are tremendous. Obviously we’ve got the right color uniforms for St. Patrick’s Day, so that worked out really well. Although, I saw a lot of green hair in the stands – more so than normal. But it was great, it was great. The display that they put up at the beginning of the game with all the flags representing all the different players and the countries that they were from. Our fans never cease to amaze me and long may it continue.”
(On watching Estrada at UCLA…) “I liked him as a freshman. I thought he had an ability in the box and the ability that he has is that if you take your eye off him even for a second he’s in a different place because he works so hard. But it was just when he first came to us it might have been nerves, or trying to do too much, or sometimes you get into bad habits when you can get away dribbling maybe and now at the next level you can’t get away as much doing that. So it was just a matter of finding that. But he’s got four goals now in our last three games and it’s great. It’s great for him.”
(On Estrada getting to this point…) “With everything in life people say, ‘If I would have only known’, or ‘I could have done this differently.’ You wouldn’t be at the place you’re at if you hadn’t gone through all the experiences you went through. All of it becomes part of your character and part of your make-up, so if he had achieved it earlier he probably wouldn’t be the same guy he is right now. So we’ll just focus on where he is right now and not worry about that.”
(Opening…) “It’s always good to start off the regular season with a win. That was something that we obviously had as a goal for ourselves. Whenever a guy gets a hat-trick like David Estrada got tonight, a great performance for him, but our team tactically did what we wanted to do. Early on we felt they played with a high line and we felt we could get in behind them with running off the ball, which we did quite a few times. They lost [Torsten] Frings do injury, that’s obviously a big part of their team and that came to help us. Ryan Johnson scores a great goal and keeps them in the game and it was a good thing David [Estrada] scores one at the other end.”
(On bouncing back tonight after a tough loss to Santos Laguna…) “Yeah, obviously we’re still disappointed with what happened down in Torreon. When you look at that, like I said it’s a 180-minute series and for 135 to 150 minutes we were up to the task and then we lost the plot somewhere. But it’s good for us to get back on track, to regain our confidence in ourselves. Obviously, Toronto [FC] is moving on to the semifinal round [of the CONCACAF Champions League]. It would have been nice if we could have moved on and played them as an opponent. It would have been a good series. It would have drawn great attendance. But I’m pleased with the character we showed tonight.”
(On David Estrada’s play…) “Well, everybody thought he was maybe a bad draft choice, but I felt like if we kept him around long enough maybe eventually I’d get something out of him so I wouldn’t look so bad [laughter]. No, David, obviously we moved him around an awful lot and it made it a little bit harder on him, but at the end of last season I think you saw all of the sudden things started to click with him a little bit more. Then once we realized that O’Brian White wouldn’t be out there for us right now, that we were short up front, we said, ‘Look, we’re going to stick you back up front. We think that’s your best spot.’ His work rate is unbelievable. Like I’ve said, nobody deserves it more in terms of the effort that they put in day-in and day-out. It’s fantastic. I remember watching him play as a freshman at UCLA and I thought his finishing was good and today with one exception, probably the breakaway in the first half he could have done a little better with, but the other three he finished fairly well.”
(On the importance of work ethic…) “Well, I think a lot of people have to look at that [Estrada’s performance] and say, ‘Hey, that’s what work does for you.’ You need 11 guys. There were a lot of other guys that did work today too. I thought Brad [Evans] and Ozzie [Osvaldo Alonso] were great in midfield today. Ozzie did a really good job on [Luis] Silva because I think Silva is going to be a very good player in this league and probably has a good shot at Rookie of the Year in this league and Ozzie shut him down pretty well. Brad kept us organized. So I was very happy.”
(On the decision to play Marc Burch…) “We just wanted to get a little bit fresher legs out there. We played a difficult game down there [in Mexico] and it was a difficult game for our defense. So we wanted to make a couple of changes, but we didn’t want to change too much. So [Patrick] Ianni, who I’ve always felt is a capable MLS center-back, so we felt he was the choice. Burch has trained well, has played well in the reserve games that we’ve played, so we felt him coming on and his ability as well to hit balls and be behind the defense is something that could help us in this game.”
(On Alonso’s injury…) “His was more a hit. Obviously the concern is when you see somebody go is it knee-to-knee, or is there something there. He’s got a little bit of a bruise or a stud-mark or something below the knee. But he said it was more just bad contact and he feels fine with his knee.”
(On the fans…) “Our fans are tremendous. Obviously we’ve got the right color uniforms for St. Patrick’s Day, so that worked out really well. Although, I saw a lot of green hair in the stands – more so than normal. But it was great, it was great. The display that they put up at the beginning of the game with all the flags representing all the different players and the countries that they were from. Our fans never cease to amaze me and long may it continue.”
(On watching Estrada at UCLA…) “I liked him as a freshman. I thought he had an ability in the box and the ability that he has is that if you take your eye off him even for a second he’s in a different place because he works so hard. But it was just when he first came to us it might have been nerves, or trying to do too much, or sometimes you get into bad habits when you can get away dribbling maybe and now at the next level you can’t get away as much doing that. So it was just a matter of finding that. But he’s got four goals now in our last three games and it’s great. It’s great for him.”
(On Estrada getting to this point…) “With everything in life people say, ‘If I would have only known’, or ‘I could have done this differently.’ You wouldn’t be at the place you’re at if you hadn’t gone through all the experiences you went through. All of it becomes part of your character and part of your make-up, so if he had achieved it earlier he probably wouldn’t be the same guy he is right now. So we’ll just focus on where he is right now and not worry about that.”
Posted in Sounders FC