Real Salt Lake: Former RSL GM Garth Lagerwey looking to make his mark in Seattle

Seattle • The tens of thousands of fans who will fill CenturyLink Stadium on Sunday, nearly all of them decked out in rave green and chanting in unison, have become accustomed to the taste of victory.

And this year, they haven't tasted it enough.

But the man responsible for steering the Seattle Sounders, general manager Garth Lagerwey, says he's not feeling any more pressure in one of Major League Soccer's premier markets than he ever did in Salt Lake.

"I suppose there's more scrutiny. There are more eyeballs and all that," said Lagerwey, who served as Real Salt Lake's general manager from 2007-2014. "But in terms of pressure, you want to do a good job, same as always. … When you're in a general manager role, you're always going to be under scrutiny."

There can be no doubt, though, that the time is now for Lagerwey to make his mark in Seattle. In his second season at the Sounders' helm, Lagerwey is steering the MLS giant through troubled times. This season, the club has lost one of the league's premier goal scorers, its longtime head coach and, at this moment, Seattle is well out of playoff position with a dozen games left.

For Lagerwey, these troubles might provide a window to finally shape the Sounders in his vision.

"This team doesn't play like any team I've ever built," the general manager said last month, when the Sounders parted ways with coach Sigi Schmid. "I'm looking forward to a new beginning."

Some of Lagerwey's vision was on display last weekend in Seattle's 3-1 victory over Orlando.

After striker Obafemi Martins' surprising decision to leave for China at the start of the season, the Sounders' attack floundered and Lagerwey was left looking for a way to help fill that void. Lagerwey was finally able to do that late last month with the signing of attacking midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro as a designated player. The Uruguayan playmaker seems to have instantly developed a chemistry with young forward Jordan Morris, finally unlocking the Seattle attack.

"I really like to play soccer on the ground, play a possession-based, entertaining style," Lagerwey said. "A No. 10 [a playmaking midfielder] is pretty essential to that. When I joined Seattle, that was something I wanted."

As he prepares to face off with Lagerwey's new club, RSL coach Jeff Cassar said he's finally starting to see his old boss' mark in the Pacific Northwest.

"I think it takes time," Cassar said. "You're starting to see some of what [RSL general manager Craig Waibel] is doing with our team and shaping the roster the way he wants it and I see it. In Seattle, it's no different. You can only make so many changes so quickly. He's added some nice pieces. … You're starting to see his fingerprint on the team."

RSL defender Tony Beltran this week praised Lagerwey's eye for talent, which helped turn small-market Salt Lake into one of Major League Soccer's most consistent franchises.

"It took many years to build the team he wanted to have here," Beltran said. "I'm sure it's going to take the same thing there."

If anything, it should be easier in Seattle. The chance to manage a bigger club — with a bigger budget and more resources — is one of the reasons Lagerwey left RSL.

"My time at RSL was massively instrumental to how we do things and how we want to shape things," he said. "In a small market, you have to be efficient. You have fewer resources and everything has a smaller scale. You have much less room for error. You can't buy your way out of contracts. You have to spend less money on DPs or no money. You've got to really work hard to get everything right. It's a great training ground. Then you take the concepts you learn at that level and scale them up."

After a rocky start to this campaign, Lagerwey hopes his club has started to turn a corner and is coming into a period of stability. The GM's teams have had four head coaches in the past four years: Jason Kreis and Cassar at RSL, followed by Schmid and now interim head coach Brian Schmetzer in Seattle.

"Irrespective of where I've been, it's been unsettled now for a long time," Lagerwey said. "That's something I would really like to get away from. But we've made the playoffs each of the last three years. I'm proud of that. I think it shows that I can manage pretty flexibly and accommodate different personalities and different styles."

Seattle's playoff hopes in the years to come, however, might depend on Lagerwey ensuring his style and identity are finally reflected on the field.

afalk@sltrib.com

Twitter: @aaronfalk