Stefan Frei deserves to win MLS Save of the Year

Stefan Frei is up for MLS Save of the Year. That should not be surprising. His full-bodied dive to stop of Shklezen Gashi on a breakaway was almost unbelievable in real time and somehow seems even more unbelievable on replay. Do the right thing, visit MLSsoccer.com, watch the other nominated saves just to be sure and vote for Frei.

What’s truly amazing about the save, though, is that it was no accident. Frei made a remarkably similar save about a month later on Darwin Quintero. The only reason that save isn’t nominated is because technically it never happened, as VAR ended up negating the save when it rewarded the Sounders with a penalty earlier in that sequence.

What makes these saves so remarkable is that they both come on breakaways in which the shooter is fed a perfect pass on the weak side with no defenders to even rush the shot. Those are supposed to be gimmes. Instead, Frei turned them away. There are plenty of good saves that show some very good reactions, but none of them are on this level.