Sigi Schmid considers his next move after leaving Sounders as MLS’ winningest coach

Less than a week after saying he wasn’t ready to walk away from the Seattle Sounders, the only coach the franchise has ever had did just that. Sigi Schmid resigned Tuesday as part of a mutual agreement with the club.

And that leaves the Sounders, who have never missed the playoffs in seven Major League Soccer seasons, rudderless as they try to salvage a season in which they’ve fallen to ninth in the 10-team Western Conference with a league-high 12 losses in 20 games.

Longtime assistant coach Brian Schmetzer, 53, will manage Seattle on Sunday against the Galaxy, and the club has said he will be considered as a permanent replacement. The Sounders would also be wise to look at Dave Sarachan, 62, the Galaxy’s associate head coach, who won two U.S. Open Cups in five seasons with the Chicago Fire.

“Of course I would entertain that possibility if it presented itself,” said Sarachan, who has worked under Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena at the University of Virginia, at D.C. United and with the U.S. national team before following him to the Galaxy in 2008.

As for Schmid, 64, who played and coached at UCLA before launching a 17-year professional coaching career with the Galaxy, his next move is uncertain. Teams in Atlanta, Minnesota, Los Angeles and Miami are scheduled to join an expanding MLS in the next two years and all four are looking for a coach. However starting a team from scratch again may not be especially appealing to Schmid after 36 years at the college and professional level.

Schmid, who has already been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, leaves Seattle as the winningest coach in MLS history with 254 victories — regular season and in the playoffs — with the Sounders, Galaxy and Columbus Crew. He also won 11 majors titles, including two MLS Cups, a CONCACAF Champions Cup and five U.S. Open Cups.

Since 2009, only the Galaxy has won more games than Seattle. But the Sounders never won a conference title, a failure the team’s demanding fan base increasingly found difficult to accept. Seattle averaged an MLS-record 44,247 fans at home last season, second-highest among soccer clubs in the Americas.

“I’m proud of the success we’ve achieved in winning five major trophies in Seattle, qualifying for the postseason for seven-straight seasons,” Schmid, who won three NCAA titles at UCLA, said in a statement. “My only disappointment is that we were unable to bring home an MLS Cup to our tremendous fans, who have always been supportive through good times and bad.”

This season clearly qualified as a bad time. Over the winter, General Manager Garth Lagerwey, who frequently seemed to be at odds with his coach, traded away Marco Pappa and Lamar Neagle, declined contract options on Chad Barrett and Micheal Azira, and made a transfer that sent Obafemi Martins, the team’s leading scorer the last two seasons, to a Chinese club.

The only major offseason addition was rookie Jordan Morris, leaving the Sounders with one of the youngest and most inexperienced teams in MLS. And so they struggled, starting the season with three straight losses and later going two months without a goal at home.

The final straw was last Sunday’s listless 3-0 loss at Kansas City in which Seattle was outshot, 18-1. Ironically, Lagerwey, who has promised Schmid help was on the way, announced the signing of Uruguayan midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Schmid stepped aside.

Lodeiro, who will fill Seattle’s vacant designated-player spot, is awaiting his visa and transfer clearance but could make his debut Sunday against the Galaxy. The Sounders are reportedly close to a deal for Alvaro Fernandez, another Uruguayan midfielder, whose signing could be announced as early as Thursday.

“Sigi Schmid has been an invaluable member of Sounders FC since the club’s MLS launch, leading our organization to numerous trophies and a consistent winning culture for seven seasons,” Sounders owner Adrian Hanauer said in a statement. “Sigi departs the club with our utmost respect and gratitude for his years of service. Ultimately the club and Sigi agreed that a change was needed at this time, but Sigi’s legacy will always be a part of our history.”