Stefan Frei’s sprawling stop of Fredy Montero’s free kick last week has officially been named MLS Save of the Week. It would, of course, have been an absolute tragedy if it had failed to win. So rather than celebrate the winning of a frankly meaningless award, I’m choosing to use this news as an opportunity to watch this absolutely amazing save again.
There are a few elements I’m not sure I fully appreciated when I first saw this.
For starters, the deflection made this a much tougher save than it would have been otherwise. Usually, when a free kick hits the wall that’s the end of the equation.