TUKWILA, Wash. – The air was a lot clearer at Seattle Sounders training on Tuesday.
Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid talked to midfielder Mario Martínez on Monday about his status with the team and said any misunderstandings have been put to rest.
“I think he understands,” Schmid said. “He knows exactly what our feelings are about him as a player, about how we cherish him as a player because he’s a player with great abilities and his future is not only this year with this team but his future is next year as well.”
Some of that had been put into question when Martínez went public with his displeasure over not playing more following Sunday’s game against FC Dallas. Although he later deleted it, Martínez said via Twitter that he was reconsidering his future with the Sounders.
Schmid on Martínez Tweet: "Me and Mario are going to talk"
Schmid took the lion’s share of the blame in allowing the situation to get to that point.
“It’s a situation of just clarity,” Schmid said. “He’s been in and out so much with the national team, he hasn’t had that many days of training with us and the training he has been with us is four or five days and then he’s gone. It takes time to establish.
“But because he’s been gone so much, probably the communication from me wasn’t as good as it could have been. Sometimes with the language barrier, I just grab somebody and I can talk to them for a few minutes, but with Mario I have to grab him and someone else so that we can talk for a few minutes and we can understand each other.”
With the situation clarified, it would seem likely that Martínez could feature as soon as Wednesday when the Sounders host Marathón in Champions League play (10 pm ET; Fox Soccer).
Jeremiah Oshan covers the Seattle Sounders for MLSsoccer.com and SB Nation.
