Major League Soccer has nominated Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei for 2017 Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year. Frei led MLS with 13 clean sheets, three more than anyone else. He finished second in Goals Against Average for goalkeepers who played at least 15 matches and saved 69.4 percent of shots faced.
Ahead of the Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year announcement on Nov. 16, SoundersFC.com counts down Frei’s top five saves of the year to date.
No. 5: At San Jose Earthquakes (4/8)
No. 4: At Minnesota United (8/5)
No. 3: Vs. Toronto FC (5/6)
No. 2: At Colorado Rapids (7/4)
No. 1
Stefan Frei will forever be memorialized in Seattle Sounders folklore for his championship-saving stop on Toronto FC’s Jozy Altidore in the 2016 MLS Cup, and in the Sounders’ 3-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sept. 27 of this year, Frei nearly replicated it.
Former Sounders great and current Whitecap Fredy Montero stood over a free kick from 30 yards out at his old stomping ground of CenturyLink Field and nearly pulled off a bit of genius. He struck a beautiful shot that deflected slightly off Chad Marshall’s shoulder and seemed destined for the top corner, but Frei had other ideas. He leapt hard to his left, extended his magical left hand and parried it up and off the crossbar before diving on the loose ball. Frei kept first-place Vancouver off the scoresheet and led Seattle to a late-season statement win.
