SEATTLE – Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei said Thursday that “a bit of a freak thing” kept him out of the team’s 2-1 loss at Real Salt Lake last weekend, but he’ll be back on the field for the team’s first Cascadia Cup match of the year against Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday (7 p.m. PT; Q13/ROOT Sports (outside Seattle)/KIRO 97.3 FM, El Rey 1360AM).
Frei missed last week’s game with elbow inflammation and said the injury stemmed from a chipped bone inside the joint that created issues late last week. The injury is common among goalkeepers, Frei said, and he’s fully recovered after a scary wake-up call.
“I felt a little soreness in the elbow and it got a little inflamed before I went to bed,” Frei said. “I took an anti-inflammatory before I went to bed, woke up and I had so much fluid in my elbow I couldn’t touch my elbow. Turns out, there’s a little chip of bone that came off inside the joint, and it’s just floating around now …I guess that little thing just got jammed in a position that it didn’t like, so the body went into protective mode.”
Frei said the injury was likely the result of various knocks he’s taken over the years – especially a couple hyper-extensions during the preseason – and did not stem from a single impact or collision.
“Something kind of just kind of got lodged where it shouldn’t have …” Frei said, “… but I’m fine now.”
Tyler Miller earned the start against RSL and played well until an 86th-minute goal scored by defender Jamison Olave, who out-jumped Miller for a floating cross across the box and nodded home the winner.
Miller accepted the blame for the play following the game, but Frei said the team’s entire goalkeeping unit went over the play together this week.
“Whether I play or someone else plays, we represent the collective work we put in during the week,” Frei said. “They don’t want me to make mistakes because I represent them, and I don’t want them to make mistakes, because they represent me.”
