Saturday, April 5, 2014

Time for the Stefan Frei Experiment to End

During the 2014 pre-season the Sounders had no clear goal keeper. The 2013 starter, Michael Gspurning, was let go by the team for a combination of budget and talent reasons. Gspurning had moments of brilliance and moments of complete meltdown. In his place they had brought in Stefan Frei, Toronto's former backup and resigned 41 year old Marcus Hahnemann. All reports were it was an open competition between the two goal keepers. However, the favorite to win the starting job was Frei and after doing just enough to prove himself to the coaches during the pre-season he secured the role. Since the regular season started he has done little to prove it was the right choice.

In the first game of the season Frei kept a clean sheet and the Sounders won 1-0, but he didn't look good doing it. Several times he failed to hold onto balls shot his way giving up rebounds. He also misplayed shots that ended up just barely missing their target. The shut out was much more because of the stout Seattle defense and the pouring rain then anything Frei did.

He followed that game up with a 2-1 loss against a stacked Toronto squad. Although Toronto has lots of highly talented players at least one of Jermain Defoe's goals should have been stopped by the Seattle keeper. It was a straight shot with almost no bend.  Frei just missed the save.

In the next two games Frei picked up another shut out against an inept Montreal squad and a 2-1 against Columbus where the Sounders had to play down a man for almost 30 minutes. There was nothing especially remarkable about his performance In either of these games. At this point, despite two shut outs, Frei overall season performance, in the first four games, would have to be described as adequate at best. Then Saturday's game against the 0-2-2 Portland Timbers.

Frei looked awful against rival Portland team. He gave up four goals and, if not for a lucky bounce off the cross bar into Yedlin's head, he would have given up a fifth. On most of these he looked out of place and poorly positioned to make a save. Sure the Djimi Traore-less defense did him no favors, but he still misplayed several balls. A better goalie could have kept the Timbers at a lower total.

After a five game stretch to start the season it is time to pull Stefan Frei from the starting job. He has proven mediocre at best and down right bad at worst. Let's give Marcus Hahnemann a shot in goal. He proved able to keep the team in the fight last year. This doesn't have to be a permanent move. If Hahnemann doesn't work out we can always give the job back to Frei. However, right now Frei isn't giving the Sounders the best chance to win. He should be pulled from the starting eleven.