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This award is given by the readers of Sounder at Heart to best defensive player in 2018. We consider anyone whose primary role is to keep the ball out of their own net a defensive player. Nominations were limited to any player that had at least 20 all-competitions starts.
Previous winners of the Sounder at Heart Defensive Player of the Year award are, in order, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Osvaldo Alonso (‘10, ‘11, ‘12, ‘16), Leo Gonzalez, Chad Marshall, Stefan Frei (‘15, ‘17). Marshall, Frei and Alonso are nominated in 2018 as well.
The nominees, in alphabetical order, are every player whose key responsibility is keeping the ball out of Seattle’s net who played more than half the all competitions games with the First Team:
Poll
Who was the 2018 Defensive Player of the Year
This poll is closed
-
1%
Osvaldo Alonso
(18 votes) -
9%
Stefan Frei
(121 votes) -
56%
Kim Kee-hee
(691 votes) -
0%
Kelvin Leerdam
(2 votes) -
29%
Chad Marshall
(363 votes) -
0%
Cristian Roldan
(3 votes) -
1%
Gustav Svensson
(19 votes) -
0%
Nouhou
(7 votes)
All of Alonso’s starts were as defensive midfielder. After recovering from an early injury he started 23 matches and appeared 4 times as a sub.
Stefan Frei only missed two competitive matches, one for the US Open Cup and the other due to injury.
Kim Kee-hee started 30 matches at centerback and appeared once as a sub. Late in games you could find him as a right back or even as a left centerback in a 3-man backline.
Kelvin Leerdam started 25 matches at right back, subbed on in 3 games and started once as a midfielder (ignore that one).
Chad Marshall started 35 matches at centerback. He never appeared as a sub.
Cristian Roldan split his time almost evenly between defensive and attacking roles. Twenty of his starts were as a defensive/holding and one was at right back.
Gustav Svensson took the field as a centerback three times in 2018. His other 27 starts were as a defensive midfielder. Four times he appeared as a sub.
Nouhou started 23 of the 28 games he played and started at left back in both postseason matches.