Seattle Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid has denied claims that he was upset with defender Chad Marshall following the weekend's loss to Columbus Crew.
The Sounders conceded a very late goal to Marshall's former club which was scored by Justin Meram to give the visitors a 2-1 win at CenturyLink Field on Saturday.
Cameras caught Schmid and Marshall in an animated conversation moments after the defeat with some critics suggesting that the Sounders boss was unhappy with Marshall for congratulating his ex-teammates on their victory.
But Schmid told the Seattle Times that he was simply querying the 29-year old about the final play and what had occurred to deny Seattle a point in front of their home fans.
"It's like somebody sees somebody walking down the street, and they've got flaming red hair and maybe have piercings all over their body, and tattoos, and so they assume that maybe this person is not necessarily a good person or something," said Schmid.
"So for me, my situation at the end of the game was I wanted to ask Chad a question because I knew he was close to the action. I was asking him about the referee and whether the referee talked to them at the end of the game. That was my question to him.
"I know at the point I was amped up because I was a little upset with the refereeing, and I know when I get amped up my arms start flailing, so people then take an assumption. But you shouldn't 'assume', because it makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me', and I think there were a lot of people who assumed things on that."
