The Seattle Sounders’ win over San Jose on Tuesday ended ugly – everyone agrees on that much.
The Sounders slugged out a 1-0 win in a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal, and after the whistle, there was pushing and shoving – and maybe even more slugging, depending on who’s telling the tale.
Seattle forward Eddie Johnson and San Jose defender Jed Zayner seemed to be at the center of the melee, but Sounders coach Sigi Schmid said Wednesday that he still doesn’t know exactly what happened.
“I just saw the very beginning of it and so forth,” Schmid said in a conference call from the East Coast, where his club will play New England on Saturday. “I think Eddie was very happy that we had won the game.
“The fans in San Jose, I know for me personally … in the years I’ve coached, they’ve always been the most abrasive fans because they’re always attacking my heritage and things like that. So it’s sort of a different vibe sometimes. (Johnson was) pounding on his Sounders logo and was proud that the Sounders had won. Unfortunately he did that in front of their fans, and he was sort of in front of their bench – at which time I told (assistant coach Brian Schmetzer), ‘Get Eddie out of there.’ And then somebody pushed Eddie.”
Schmid said he didn’t see much more than that because he was engaged with San Jose coach Frank Yallop.
“Just a discussion we had about what happened at the end,” Schmid explained. “It wasn’t anything major. I’ve known Frank for a long time; I have a lot of respect for him as a coach. … It was more or less an exchange of, ‘I’ll take care of my guys; you take care of your guys.’ ”
Schmid admitted that he’s getting tired of trying to “take care” of his guys.
The Sounders’ loss at Portland on Sunday marked the third straight MLS game in which a Sounders player was issued a red card (Jhon Kennedy Hurtado at Montreal, Alvaro Fernandez against Kansas City and Fredy Montero at Portland).
Schmid voiced his frustration after that game, and he repeated it Wednesday.
“I’m not happy with it,” he said. “It’s something that we’ve talked about as a team, we talked about it briefly (Tuesday) night at the end of the game, and we’ll address it again. It’s important for us to maintain our composure. … It’s something that we as a team need to become better at and not allow teams to take us out of our game.”
Schmid said he spoke individually to Johnson but does not yet know anything that would necessarily lead to club discipline against him.
ADDED TIME
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. today for the Sounders’ U.S. Open Cup semifinal against Chivas USA, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. July 10 at Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila. … Defender Adam Johansson (hamstring) traveled with the club, and Schmid said Johansson could be available to play against New England. … Schmid also said goalkeeper Michael Gspurning (hip) is making progress in his recovery and that the timetable for Gspurning’s return could become clearer next week.
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