Seattle Sounders manager Brian Schmetzer is coming under intense pressure after watching his team suffer a home defeat against Real Salt Lake, who have been one of the poorest teams away from home this season. Schmetzer watched his team lose 1-0 in the recent home match and this resulted in the club once again falling away from their push for a top two positions in the Western Conference.

Seattle Sounders encountered a similar poor start last season and had to come away with a brilliant comeback in the second half of the campaign in order to salvage the 2017 season. Seattle Sounders ended up reaching the final of the MLS Cup where they lost against Toronto.

However, a similar repeat of the campaign would not be ideal, since Seattle would want to maintain momentum from the start. So far, it has not been easy with the team only managing two victories from the first 10 matches. As a result, Seattle find themselves under great pressure in order to recover from this poor start. Only Colorado Rapids are level or lower on points with Seattle and they have lost five consecutive games. If the situation continues, Brian Schmetzer faces the potential sack. Now, the manager has challenged his team in order to recover from the start and get a positive result in the next match.

“I said, ‘Look, this is a tough time. There’s only one way we can go, which is up.’ They have to put the work in, they have to come ready to work on Tuesday and make sure that they’re prepared, not just physically but mentally, to see if we can correct some of the things that we will show them on tape and highlight some of the positive things they did accomplish,” said the Seattle Sounders manager after the loss against RSL.