Editor's Note: The folllowing is the first in a series of features looking back at the Seattle Sounders' season, broken down by position. Look for more in the series this week on SoundersFC.com.
Statistics for goalkeepers are notoriously fickle. But even by those mercurial measures, pretty much everyone expected Stefan Frei to be a finalist for the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award.
Frei’s numbers were top drawer by the league’s exacting keeper standards. His 125 saves were second in MLS. He was third in saves-per-game with 3.6, tied for first in goals conceded, had the highest save percentage in the league at 77 and the lowest goals-against average at 1.06.
But when the final three players up for MLS Goalkeeper of the Year were announced on Nov. 3, Frei’s name was somehow not on the list.
It was a puzzling snub for a 'keeper who enjoyed a career year and utterly confounded opposing attackers all season. And while that wasn’t great news for Frei on an individual basis, the Sounders are hardly complaining about a future at the position with Frei at the center.
Because after looking for some measure of consistency at the organizational head of the defense, Seattle has found its 'keeper of the future.
When the Seattle coaching staff sits down to do its postseason evaluations by position, they won’t find a single tier in better stead than the franchise’s future between the pipes. That, of course, is best exemplified by Frei, who enjoyed one of the best seasons for a 'keeper in franchise history in 2015 and seemed to settle in nicely in his second year in the Emerald City.
Frei has always been a quality shot-stopper and one-on-one keeper, and he only sharpened those qualities in 2015. But where Frei doubled down this season was in his organizational capacity and in the air. Frei has never been the most vocal of 'keepers, and if he had a weakness, it was dealing with crosses and in dead ball situations as they fell like meteors into crowded zones of the box. Part of that, according to Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid, was due to rustiness after missing 2013 via injury with Toronto FC.
“When you’re not getting games, the hardest thing is dealing with crosses, corner kicks, with basically aerial duals in the box,” Schmid said earlier this year. “That’s something you can try and replicate in practice, but it’s never quite the same as it is in games. That’s probably the biggest advancement, just his judgment of aerial balls and his ability to control the box.”
Plenty of games in 2014 smoothed the transition into 2015 for Frei, who showed a comfort commanding the back line and a preternatural ability to pluck looping balls into his box out of the air to kill off dead balls that might’ve befuddled him only a year earlier. That was essentially the final big piece to fit into Frei’s puzzle. Every 'keeper can target areas of improvement, but for Frei, he can spend his 30’s tweaking instead of rebuilding.
That’s big news for Seattle going forward. The Sounders can now focus their transfer and acquisition efforts elsewhere.
Behind Frei, Seattle has a good blend of veteran savvy and young, up-and-coming talent. Frei’s backup Troy Perkins, a grizzled 34-year-old MLS veteran, wasn’t called upon often, but during Frei’s only stretch of injury in 2015 Perkins performed admirably. In 316 minutes spanning three and a half games, Perkins helped preserve one shutout and backstopped the team for three consecutive 1-0 losses. With a bit more attacking verve, none of those games would’ve been out of reach, and certainly Perkins himself wasn’t to blame.
That kind of veteran savvy is what Seattle hoped to get out of Perkins as a backup, and his calm presence in the locker room was the kind of thing you want from a second string player.
The future, too, was served this year. Charlie Lyon, 23, served as the primary 'keeper for S2 this season and logged more than 2,000 minutes of quality experience with a goals against average of 1.71. Tyler Miller and Kerawala Saif both logged minutes as well, and academy alumni keepers like Paul Christianson (Portland) are garnering experience a bit further afield. If there’s one position Seattle’s done exceptionally well to both develop and identify, it’s this one.
All four tiers - keeper, defense, midfield and forward - have room for improvement as the team looks toward building a winner for 2016 and beyond. But no position looks set for future success quite to the degree that the goalkeeper spot does.
