LOS ANGELES – Stefan Frei has had no shortage of standout performances in big games during a career in which he’s won eight trophies. He’s earned a MLS Cup MVP and Concacaf Champions League Best Goalkeeper for his exploits. Rarely, if ever, has he been better than he was in the Seattle Sounders’ 2-1 AET win over LAFC in the Western Conference semifinals on Saturday.
The 38-year-old couldn’t quite secure his 15th career playoff shutout – which would have tied him with Kevin Hartman for the most in MLS history – but he did make nine saves, while facing 27 total shots.
It wasn’t just the volume of shots, either. According to Opta’s post-shot expected goals metric, Frei’s performance cost LAFC 2.17 potential goals.
“I don’t want to get too emotional with him here, but we’ve been teammates for a long time and Stef has saved us countless, countless times,” Sounders forward Jordan Morris said. “Today you saw that on full display.”
That was especially true after halftime when Frei was forced to make all nine of his saves, several of which were of the spectacular variety. Although the Sounders did an admirable job of limiting LAFC’s looks through the first 45 minutes and even in the immediate aftermath of their goal, the pressure became almost unrelenting as the clock ticked toward full time.
In the 87th minute, Aaron Long nearly scored on a bicycle kick, only for Frei to dive to his right to paw it way. Frei came up with an even more impressive save in the 5th minute of second-half stoppage time, keeping out a close-range attempt by Ryan Hollingshead with something that can only be called a reflex save. His best save may have been in the 100th minute, though, when Mateusz Bogusz got a clean look from the edge of the penalty area. Although Frei got caught going the wrong way, he managed to make a kick save with his trailing leg. On one of the game’s final plays, Frei crashed shoulder-first into the post to prevent Hollingshead’s tight-angle shot from sneaking past. Six of Frei’s saves were on shots with xGOT values of at least .28.
As he often does, Frei refused to make the performance about him and simply credited his teammates with raising their collective level.
“When the guys are working so hard, you spend so much time with this group and you start to really care for your teammates,” he said. “When you see everybody just put it all on the line, you want them to get rewarded so bad and sometimes it doesn’t happen that way. For us to get rewarded today just feels really good. Every player deserves it.”
Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer wasn’t going to let Frei off quite so easy.
“I’m going to stump for Stef Frei,” Brian Schmetzer said. “How that guy hasn’t won Goalkeeper of the Year is a travesty. It’s a travesty and it’s a mistake. If people don’t want to get on the bandwagon, that’s your choice, but my belief is that guy is the best shot-stopper in the league, bar none.”