2013, the coach ran the team into the ground (appropriately) to get that first Shield. They were gassed, especially a very old TH14, and had no legs in the playoffs, and it was obvious to everyone watching. An experienced coach (and one not so desperate) would have rested and rotated players heading into the playoffs... fresh legs, and experienced options on the bench, instead of dead legs, a tired game plan, and inexperienced players expected to come off the bench into a big game and make a difference... like what happened last year... and they year before.
Seattle's USOC wins were evidence of, and added onto, their coaching staff's tournament experience - Schmetzer had been around for a very long time, learning under one of the all time greats.
Our substitutions in the 2013 playoff loss to Houston were Peguy (106'), Alexander (75') and Espindola (63') - I do not believe you can say that we had "inexperienced" players coming in off the bench. All of these guys saw good minutes in the regular season.
The whole "running players into the ground" thing does seem to be a popular reason cited for our playoff woes for the last 6 years. But can we dig in and prove this with evidence and data?
REGULAR SEASON STARTS
2016 Seattle Sounders
Players with 30+ Starts: 4
Players with 20-30 Starts: 4
Players with 10-20 Starts: 5
Players with less than 10 Starts: 7
20 Total Players Started Matches
2 Players Made Sub Appearances and Never Started a Match
Source: https://en.wikipedia...nders_FC_season
2013 Red Bulls
Players with 30+ Starts: 4
Players with 20-30 Starts: 6
Players with 10-20 Starts: 4
Players with less than 10 Starts: 9
23 Total Players Started Matches
4 Players Made Sub Appearances and Never Started a Match
Source: https://en.wikipedia...ed_Bulls_season
Maybe the 2013 Red Bulls actually had more squad rotation than the 2016 Sounders did?