Joe Roth, the owner of Seattle Sounders, has made it clear that Sigi Schmid will not be terminated from his post of manager.

Seattle had performed very poorly towards the end of the last season. Out of their last 10 games, they had managed to win just 1 and at the end of the season, there were speculations that the boss Schmid might face the axe, but, the club owners seem to have got a lot of confidence in the 60 years old German manager and they have decided to keep him at the club for another season.

Schmid has been in charge at Seattle Sounders since the last 5 years and the team has achieved quite a lot of success under him.

Talking to the reporters in a press conference yesterday, Roth said, “We have evaluated Sigi’s work thoroughly and we have come to the conclusion that he should continue managing our side. Yes, we are disappointed with our performance in the latter half of the last season, but, Sigi is hugely experienced and we can’t just write him off on the basis of one poor season.”

“Under Sigi, we have qualified for the playoffs for 5 consecutive seasons and that’s a big achievement. Not many teams have done that. We have got full faith in Sigi and we are totally backing him. He will be provided all the resources and we are hoping that he guides the team to MLS Cup glory next season.”

Seattle Sounders played a total of 34 games last season out of which they managed to win 15. They got defeated in 12 games, while, the remaining 7 games were draws. They ended up at the 4^th position in the Western Conference points table with 52 points.

Seattle Sounders have had a very poor striking combination in the form of Obafemi Martins and Eddie Johnson. Even though the duo have certainly not been good, the club are planning to stick with the partnership according to the latest interview given by manager Sigi Schmid. He has said that he believes Martins and Johnson complement each other well and they will eventually come good. The arrival of Clint Dempsey has certainly given a huge threat to the duo since the former Fulham and Tottenham player is capable of playing as a striker.

In the nine matches that Martins and Johnson have played together, they have contributed just five goals and one assist. Despite this poor form of the strikers, Seattle Sounders are currently top of the table. They can substantially increase clear advantage to 6 points if they win the two matches in hand over Real Salt Lake. After managing the 1-1 draw with LA Galaxy, which was a game that Dempsey missed due to injury, Schmid said that there were not many combinations between the two strikers, but they are improving with every minute.

Former Newcastle United striker Martins has a great reputation of scoring goals, but he has so far failed to produce magic at Seattle Sounders.

“I thought last game was better than the game before. The game in LA there wasn’t a lot of combinations. The last game there were a lot of combinations. I think it’s something that, with game time, it improves all the time. That combination can work when we play that combination. When Clint [Dempsey] gets into the mix, it changes things up again,” said the manager about the striking options at the club. Seattle Sounders have another big match in the form of a home encounter against New York Red Bulls in the next match.