In his first five professional seasons as a Major League Soccer goalkeeper, Sounders FC’s Stefan Frei played a total of zero postseason matches.
One season with Seattle and Frei has already enjoyed three matches in the MLS Cup Playoffs, allowing only two goals—a penalty and deflected shot—in the process. Experiencing a trial by fire-type scenario, the 28-year-old Swiss has enjoyed the challenge the matches have presented.
“It’s great,” said Frei of his first foray into postseason play. “It’s been a long season. This is new territory for me obviously. You have these nicks and bruises that in the beginning of the season usually go away after a week. Now after eight months, they stick around. So you have to take care of your body, but we have a great staff around here that helps you out with that. So far, so good, and hopefully we can advance to the Final.”
Frei’s initial season in the Emerald City has resulted in a nomination for MLS Comeback Player of the Year due to his post-shootout era league-record 20 wins, along with two club trophies (the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and Supporters’ Shield). Now, he’s excelling in the first postseason appearance of his career.
Despite the lofty expectations put on the team after the successful regular season, Frei has made a point to stay focused on the match at hand, not necessarily what is riding on it.
“You can add that pressure on top of it, but I try to go at it the same way we’ve gone at it every week during the season,” said Frei of the year so far. “One of our goals was to win the Supporters’ Shield. And we knew we needed to get something out of every game, so treat every game with the utmost respect.
“That’s how I’ve approached it every week, and I try to do the same thing in the playoffs. Not hype myself, or psych myself out.”
One of the major differences for Frei after five years with Toronto FC was the level of expectations at his former club compared to his current club. For Seattle, it’s MLS Cup or bust every season.
Frei, however, has been spurred on by this and knows that Sunday’s Western Conference Championship Second Leg with the LA Galaxy is the club’s biggest match of the season.
“We have some lofty goals, and for me that was something new coming from Toronto, where we hadn’t made the playoffs in all of my years there. For us, the goal was always just to get into the playoffs. Here it’s very lofty goals, but they’re achievable.
“We have a really good squad. We didn’t just say we wanted to win MLS Cup, we knew we had a serious chance of doing that. We’re still there. We still have one thing that we set ourselves up to win, and we’re going to do everything on Sunday to make sure we get there.”
Sunday’s match with the Galaxy kicks off at 6:00 p.m. PST from CenturyLink Field with live television coverage on ESPN.