# Brian Schmetzer on Sounders Draw, Referee Calls, Injuries, Next Games

An episode of [Softy & Dick Interviews](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1245866571), 28 Oct 2026, 8:49.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/98a2599f-cd9b-4f2a-9be4-b22c00e585f2/907d6469-cef5-4bda-9f13-b2f100f49399/2cd21bda-e0e6-4c0d-861a-b4f10011d5c4/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=26b16ce4-8fab-44ea-88d4-b2f100f493bc

Seattle Sounders FC Head Coach Brian Schmetzer joins Dave Softy Mahler and Dick Fain to talk about the strange referee decisions in the team’s 2-2 draw in San Diego, a defensive learning moment for a young player, updated injuries to the squad with just three games left, and the two games this week against Houston then up in Vancouver. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: This is Duke of Duke Seafood, and this hour is
[0:02] Speaker 1: brought to you by Duke Seafood. Why don't you make
[0:04] Speaker 1: it a Duke's night tonight? Reserve your table today at dukesseafood.com. Now,
[0:10] Speaker 1: back to Softie and Dick on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR FM.
[0:15] Speaker 2: All right, we're back on a busy Tuesday night. Hugh
[0:17] Speaker 2: Millen joins us in the 6 p.m.
[0:18] Speaker 3: Hour.
[0:19] Speaker 4: His thoughts on Quentin Nelson to the Seahawks. Seahawks.
[0:25] Speaker 2: Joining us right now on the radio program for your
[0:28] Speaker 2: Seattle Sounders FC coming off a draw to San Diego
[0:33] Speaker 2: over the weekend.
[0:33] Speaker 4: It's our friend Brian Schmetzer. Brian, how are you, man?
[0:38] Speaker 3: Chauncey, I'm good, but we got to start. I got
[0:41] Speaker 3: to make a confession.
[0:42] Speaker 4: Uh-oh.
[0:42] Speaker 3: What'd you do? Well, I was running behind at a
[0:47] Speaker 3: doctor's appointment at a late day today at work. I
[0:50] Speaker 3: was running behind. I wasn't able to listen to your show. Okay, okay. Normally,
[0:56] Speaker 3: I get on early and listen to you and Dick
[0:58] Speaker 3: talk about stuff to get a feel for if you're
[1:01] Speaker 3: in a good mood, if you're in a bad mood.
[1:04] Speaker 3: But I didn't do it today, so I'm flying blind.
[1:07] Speaker 4: I'm glad that you didn't listen, to be honest with you.
[1:09] Speaker 4: He's very pissy today, Brian. Well, in the 3 p.m.
[1:12] Speaker 2: Hour, we spent the first 45 minutes ripping your ass
[1:16] Speaker 2: on the air.
[1:16] Speaker 3: Okay?
[1:17] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[1:19] Speaker 3: I can find it. I can find it on the internet.
[1:22] Speaker 2: No, Jackson, don't podcast that.
[1:24] Speaker 4: Yeah, don't podcast that. I don't want him hearing that. Well,
[1:26] Speaker 4: you know what?
[1:27] Speaker 2: Listen, man, there's bigger things you can do to waste
[1:30] Speaker 2: your time than hear this radio program, so I don't
[1:32] Speaker 2: blame you at all. But two things. Number one, when
[1:34] Speaker 2: we're done here, check your phone. I just sent you something.
[1:37] Speaker 2: Just make sure you're by yourself. And then number two, look.
[1:41] Speaker 2: We all know that referees have a hard job, right?
[1:43] Speaker 2: In the draw against San Diego, a couple of penalties
[1:47] Speaker 2: called against you, horribly missed call on the first goal.
[1:51] Speaker 2: You know it's just the three of us and maybe
[1:53] Speaker 2: my wife and Dick's wife and maybe our moms tuning in.
[1:57] Speaker 2: So there's not many people out there listening. What are
[2:00] Speaker 2: your thoughts about the job that referee Alan Chapman did
[2:03] Speaker 2: last weekend, honestly?
[2:06] Speaker 3: Well, look, I'm going to make a slightly politically correct answer,
[2:14] Speaker 3: but then I'm going to give you how I really feel.
[2:15] Speaker 3: So critically correct is, yes, I got a hard job,
[2:19] Speaker 3: you know, everything. There are still some things that they
[2:24] Speaker 3: have to feel the game and kind of get a
[2:27] Speaker 3: sense for what's happening. But I mean, there could have been,
[2:32] Speaker 3: there could have been, because we checked it out. We got,
[2:35] Speaker 3: you know, Jeremiah O'Shan got a report from the MLS
[2:39] Speaker 3: pro on the first penalty kick, which when I looked
[2:42] Speaker 3: at the replay, the first penalty was a penalty. Alex
[2:45] Speaker 3: fouled him, even though the ball was already gone. I
[2:48] Speaker 3: think it was a penalty, but there was encroachment. One
[2:51] Speaker 3: of their guys stepped into the 18 and he was
[2:53] Speaker 3: directly involved in the play. So I'm kind of saying
[2:58] Speaker 3: to myself, That probably should have been retaken. Now, the
[3:03] Speaker 3: second one where Stewie, young Stewie, he's got to learn
[3:07] Speaker 3: from this, where he grabs the guy's jersey. Again, again,
[3:11] Speaker 3: when I look at it, by definition, it's a jersey tug.
[3:16] Speaker 3: But you also have to say the ball was going
[3:20] Speaker 3: out of bounds. The guy was never going to get it,
[3:23] Speaker 3: and he made a meal out of it. So, yeah,
[3:26] Speaker 3: a couple of penalties, but at the end of the day,
[3:28] Speaker 3: we kind of shot ourselves in the foot.
[3:30] Speaker 4: So what did you say to Stewie after the game?
[3:35] Speaker 3: Well, you don't want to know. We can't put it on.
[3:36] Speaker 3: It's a family. It's a family radio.
[3:39] Speaker 4: Actually, wait a minute. We do have audio. We have
[3:41] Speaker 4: audio from that exchange here.
[3:42] Speaker 3: Stupid idiot. No, I look, look, I look, we were, look,
[3:49] Speaker 3: everybody was in a bad mood, Dick, after the game. And,
[3:52] Speaker 3: I tried to, you know, try to measure my emotion.
[3:55] Speaker 3: But I said, look, man, this is pro sports. We
[3:57] Speaker 3: got to learn from this. You got to step up.
[4:00] Speaker 3: You made a mistake. Own it. and move on and
[4:05] Speaker 3: don't let it happen again. Right.
[4:06] Speaker 4: How often does that happen?
[4:07] Speaker 2: I know we're kind of going off script here, but
[4:09] Speaker 2: how often does that happen where an official will walk
[4:12] Speaker 2: up to you either during a match, after a match,
[4:14] Speaker 2: maybe you'll bump into somebody at the airport, maybe a
[4:17] Speaker 2: match months down the road, and they'll say, hey, you
[4:19] Speaker 2: know what?
[4:21] Speaker 4: You're right. I had a bad day that game. I
[4:24] Speaker 4: blew it. I'm sorry. How often does that happen?
[4:27] Speaker 3: I've actually had, look, I'm not one of the coaches
[4:30] Speaker 3: in MLS that rant and rave every single game. There's
[4:33] Speaker 3: certain things that upset me, but I try and get a,
[4:36] Speaker 3: or have a good relationship with a lot of the referees.
[4:39] Speaker 3: And I think they appreciate that. That's happened to me
[4:41] Speaker 3: on not just one or two occasions, but three or
[4:43] Speaker 3: four where the refs had come and said, Hey, you
[4:45] Speaker 3: know what, Brian, I took a look at that play
[4:48] Speaker 3: from the other game. And, you know, I, I think
[4:50] Speaker 3: that's good. I think if referees can accept it, when
[4:54] Speaker 3: they watch it on film, they learn and try and
[4:57] Speaker 3: get better. I think that's great. I think it's important
[4:59] Speaker 3: for Russ.
[5:00] Speaker 4: Talk to us about Jordan Morris. He came out of
[5:01] Speaker 4: the game potentially with an injury in the, in the
[5:04] Speaker 4: 68th minute. So how's he doing? Is he going to
[5:05] Speaker 4: be available for Houston tomorrow?
[5:08] Speaker 3: Yeah, he'll be available, but he was cramping in his hamstring,
[5:13] Speaker 3: which is always, you know, he's a sprinter. He's a fast, big,
[5:17] Speaker 3: powerful guy. So that always kind of makes us nervous,
[5:20] Speaker 3: but He's listening to his body, and I give Jordan
[5:24] Speaker 3: a little bit of credit there because, you know, we
[5:26] Speaker 3: want him to be on the field at the end
[5:28] Speaker 3: of the year. Playoffs are coming up. So when he
[5:31] Speaker 3: felt those cramps, he did the right thing. He didn't
[5:33] Speaker 3: try and play through it and then really injure his
[5:36] Speaker 3: hamstring or pull his hamstring. We made the right decision there.
[5:40] Speaker 3: He'll be available for Wednesday, and he'll be available for
[5:43] Speaker 3: the weekend against Vancouver. All right.
[5:45] Speaker 4: Well, Brian Schmetz is with us. I mean, talk more
[5:48] Speaker 4: about this Houston team.
[5:49] Speaker 2: The Dynamo actually have the exact same number of goals
[5:51] Speaker 2: scored as you do and the exact same number of
[5:54] Speaker 2: goals allowed as you do.
[5:57] Speaker 4: 41, by the way.
[5:57] Speaker 2: And, yes, I said 41 and 39. So give us
[6:01] Speaker 2: your take on this Dynamo team that you're going to
[6:03] Speaker 2: see tomorrow.
[6:04] Speaker 3: 41 yards. Well, Guilherme, their Brazilian guy, he's their kind
[6:14] Speaker 3: of go-to star playmaker. We got some inside information, though,
[6:18] Speaker 3: from Jao Paulo. JP played for us, you know, a
[6:20] Speaker 3: few years back, won us a, you know, CONCACAF championship.
[6:24] Speaker 3: He played with him in Brazil. And so we've kind
[6:28] Speaker 3: of got an inside source as to what makes him tick.
[6:31] Speaker 3: So I don't think he's going to like being knocked
[6:33] Speaker 3: over on the cold turf, rain. You know, I don't
[6:36] Speaker 3: think we're going to try and you know, make a
[6:39] Speaker 3: evening that he doesn't want to remember. Uh, but they've
[6:42] Speaker 3: got bogus. They got, they got our tour. They've got Herrera.
[6:46] Speaker 3: Who's a Mexican national team player. They got a, they
[6:48] Speaker 3: got a solid squad. Their goalkeeping is decent. And I
[6:52] Speaker 3: love Benny. Benny Olsen, their coach, but he's not going
[6:56] Speaker 3: to be on the sideline because he got a red
[6:57] Speaker 3: card for, guess what, Softie? Ripping a referee. And so
[7:02] Speaker 3: he got a red card in the last game. So
[7:05] Speaker 3: there you have it. They're going to be without their
[7:06] Speaker 3: head coach on Wednesday. Wow.
[7:08] Speaker 2: Well, then you got Vancouver this weekend, and you told
[7:11] Speaker 2: us last week that you'd be getting Paul Rothrock back
[7:13] Speaker 2: for that game.
[7:14] Speaker 4: Is that still going to be the case?
[7:16] Speaker 3: Yep. Still going to be the case. He's on track.
[7:18] Speaker 3: He did a full training today with Extra. So he's
[7:22] Speaker 3: sprinting you know, up in the mid-90s of his max speed.
[7:27] Speaker 3: So he's ready to go. Yeah.
[7:30] Speaker 2: Is there a magic word that you can't say to
[7:32] Speaker 2: a ref, by the way? Like, you've seen Bull Durham, right?
[7:34] Speaker 2: We all know there's a couple words you can't say
[7:36] Speaker 2: to umpires in baseball.
[7:38] Speaker 4: The word I'm thinking of ends with a sucker, by
[7:40] Speaker 4: the way.
[7:40] Speaker 2: Is there any word that you cannot say to an
[7:43] Speaker 2: official that will mean automatic red card ejection?
[7:47] Speaker 3: I would say if you called a referee a sucker,
[7:50] Speaker 3: that you would probably get a red card ejected. anything
[7:53] Speaker 3: that starts with the letter F and, you know, ends
[7:57] Speaker 3: with the letter U, some couple of words combined, something
[8:01] Speaker 3: like that. You know, I think there's probably common sense here, Softie, that,
[8:09] Speaker 3: you know, touching them, bumping them, bumping chest, you know,
[8:13] Speaker 3: all that sort of stuff, that's going to get you
[8:16] Speaker 3: a red card.
[8:16] Speaker 4: I get you. All right, well, go get them this weekend,
[8:19] Speaker 4: and we'll talk next Tuesday.
[8:20] Speaker 3: All right, man? All right, take care, guys. See you.
[8:24] Speaker 3: And I'll listen next Tuesday. I promise I'll be listening.
[8:27] Speaker 4: Houston tomorrow. My fault. Meant tomorrow.
[8:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you for tuning in and actually giving us
[8:32] Speaker 2: your business, by the way. We appreciate that. Brian Schmetzer
[8:35] Speaker 2: with us. We're going to break. Hugh Millen's going to
[8:37] Speaker 2: join us in the 6 p.m. hour as well with
[8:39] Speaker 2: his thoughts on the Quentin Nelson acquisition. Update on the
[8:42] Speaker 2: World Series and a lot more, too, coming up on
[8:44] Speaker 2: 93.3 KJR FM.

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