SEATTLE — The Seattle Sounders entered the locker room at halftime on Saturday down 2-0 to the New England Revolution. The Revs scored the opener in the 15th minute when a long-range effort from Daigo Kobayashi, a shot that didn’t look to trouble goalkeeper Stefan Frei, caught Frei on the heel of his glove and trickled into the net.
“I walked into the locker room at halftime and said ‘I f---ed up. Who wants to bail me out? Please step up,’ Frei recalled. “I made a blunder and gifted them a goal…It was an error on my part, simple as that.”
Frei responded with several clutch saves later in the first half despite a Juan Agudelo header to keep the Sounders within striking distance. He was happy to be able to regain some confidence, and he trusted that his teammates would come through.
“Stefan is one of the best goalkeepers in the league,” said midfielder Osvaldo Alonso. “Mistakes happen. He saved us [last year] in the [MLS Cup Final], we didn’t have to say anything to him.”
Said head coach Brian Schmetzer: “That’s not going to happen to Stef very often, that’s just a fact of life.”
The hardest part for Frei at the end of the match, when the team was rallying, was watching from his net, unable to contribute offensively. All he could do was make sure his defenders stayed honest so that they didn’t concede another goal while pushing forward and hoping there would be time for him to make one final go at an equalizer.
“We’re 3-1 down and I’m just praying, ‘Please score one more’ and then in the 90th [minute] I can come up maybe on a corner and do some magic,” said Frei. “It’s very difficult for you to stay in the back and essentially be helpless and just watch and encourage your teammates.”
Saturday was the first time in club history that the Sounders overcame a three-goal deficit to earn a point, and it was only the 10th time in Major League Soccer history a team has done it. Seattle has already had some dramatic fishes to start the season — a last-gasp comeback in Montreal and allowing a 90th-minute equalizer in San Jose — and its 3-3 home draw with the Revs only adds to wild eight-game start to the season.
The Sounders have three games at CenturyLink Field in May, starting with a rematch of the 2016 MLS Cup Final against Toronto FC on May 6, and will hope to continue to grab points at home. While they only came away with one point on Saturday, given the circumstances and how the match unfolded, the Sounders will take it.
“The response was in the hands of my teammates,” said Frei. “I’m thankful and I’m super proud of them the way they fought all the way to the end.”
