Bring back Stefan Frei!
Our longest-serving player, a guy with tonnes of passion for the team.
Our best option now that he's fit.
SUPER STEFAN FREI!!!!
Bring back Stefan Frei!
Our longest-serving player, a guy with tonnes of passion for the team.
Our best option now that he's fit.
SUPER STEFAN FREI!!!!
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
+1!!
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
No. This isn't our biggest need for a change. And all it would do is unsettle the team.
I would bring him in for the mid week game against Chivas just to get him some minutes working with the defence.
But Bendik is the #1 until he has a cruddy couple of games.
I'd like to see him back for sentimental purposes, but it sends a terrible message putting him back. Bendik has been great - put Frei in now and you send the message "When you are given your shot, it doesn't matter if you take it and earn your place in the starting 11, you lose it once the person you displaced comes back"
^What message? He's not Peter Cech. Bendik went from the reserves last year to playing every minute of every game.
If Koevs is getting action to "see what he has got", then Frei should be too.
“What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.”
I think Bendik could use a break and since Frei has only played 1 or 2 games this year I think it wouldn't hurt to see what he's got. It may also be in the best interest of the team to showcase him if indeed they are trying to trade him.
He's no Cech, but he's earned his spot through performances. He's done nothing to get dropped. Doesn't matter what he did in the past. What's he's doing now is what you want every fringe player to do. When given the opportunity to play - take it, perform well enough to stay in the team.
Koevs is a different story. Our forwards aren't exactly on the top of their game. If they were banging them in, it would be a bit different, but they aren't. Plus, outfield players get rotated and subbed way more than keepers do. Just the nature of the position.
Unfortunately for Frei, the only game he played finished 6-0...
Bendik hasn't made any mistakes (other than some of his wild punts) and is much cheaper than Frei.
Man, I'd take Petr Cech as a DP signing any day.
IIRC in 2011 Winter played a number of games with each in net one half.
I don't know what the effect would be, only those with locker room knowledge of the team could have some idea.
^ I'd only give him a start to rest Bendik for a bit but really our schedual has a nice gap in it now so there's no need.
But I do agree if we want to move Frei at all he's got to get some minutes to showcase himself. No one is going to take on his salary with not seeing him play this year. Not that it really makes a difference because there's no way I see a team trading for him, unless there really stuck for a keeper.
Not sure how much term he has left on his contract but if he's still signed up to next year I think the best thing to do would be to loan him out to a USL/NASL team for the year so he can get some playing time and bring him back for camp next year.
No.
I feel for him though.
Difference being, a fully fit Danny K is an improvement. Frei isn't an improvement on Bendik. The other difference being, you can give Danny K 15 mins here and there in a bid to get his match fitness back, you can't do that with Frei. He was given a chance against Montreal to stake a claim and didn't take it. It wasn't just his fault but he didn't do himself any favours with the couple of goals he was solely at fault for. Everyone likes Frei, and he is a good keeper, but for what he is paid and what he have currently, I'll take Bendik all day long.
Leave Bendik in net, as he as proven he is #1. I am certain he inspires some confidence with the rest of the team. I like Frei, but it wouldn't make sense to start him now.
I wouldn't unsettle the team out of sentiment. Plus if you put him in and he flops like he did against Montreal then the Nelsen second guessing will fly and Frei will effectively be done here and maybe damaged long term confidence-wise.
Bendik looked solid early in the year, but recently his game has declined somewhat. He's still decent, but I'd give him a break.
Stefan deserves to have a chance, I believe there is a game or two where he would have made the difference.
MLS is a tough, physical league, that emphasizes speed, and features plastic fields, grueling travel, extreme weather, and incompetent refs. - NK Toronto
Frei is again coming back from an injury and nowhere near match fit
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
I would argue the distribution part of the game is actually much more important than a lot of people assume. Bednik completes about 40% of his passes. Most MLS keepers complete between 45-55% of their passes and the very best complete around the low 60s. This all adds up and it equates to more defending for this team.
We're too conservative in our lineup choices and tactical decisions. It feels like we default to the safe option too often, like we're content to say "we were in the game" without actually taking chances to win one.
I love Frei circa 2011, best TFC player every game.
But Bendik is the 2013 version of the 2011 Frei and is outstanding. I wouldn't drop Bendik, he makes some great saves each week and keeps the team in games. That double save against Montreal after they got level was fantastic. Bendik's level hasn't dropped since day one, he's playing just as well now as he was at the start of the season.
I feel bad for Frei, but would probably feel worse for Bendik if he got dropped when he's playing so well.
The difference between Frei and Koevermanns is that Frei's replacement is playing well, while TFC aren't scoring many goals so you can make an argument for Koevermanns to play a few games in place of Earnshaw, who hasn't scored in a few weeks.
If ever there was an easy opening for Nelsen to give Frei a start - it's after Bendik allowing 3 (no matter what the circumstances)...
I guess the only wrinkle in that is the fact it was still a draw against the conference leading team...
If TFC are going to want to trade Frei (not saying I do) - he'll need to play, put in some solid play, or have no current value...
Its a problem, 2 good keepers, but at least its a good problem - let's face our other problems are just plain painful (aka holding a lead!)
"...Money wasn't tight, but it like, it wasn't right..."
I think it would be a show of class by the organization to allow Frei, a trooper for us through some horrible years, to get to 100 caps for us. He's at 98, so it would just be 2 games, that's all. 17 league games left - 15 for Bendik, 2 for Frei.
8 home games left to make it happen.
Wish I had it... the website I find these stats from (http://www.whoscored.com) doesn't have anything except the current MLS season. It's too bad, because that could also provide us with some insight whether Bednik's distribution is really a cut below everyone else's or whether his teammates / the way the coaching staff asks him to play might be impacting his pass %.
Another thing that crossed my mind: is the current form of the keeper really all that important? This season is shot, we are not making the playoffs. The most important thing we can do is find out which guy is the better keeper, which we won't be able to objectively do unless we give Frei more games. Failing that, it might boost his trade value, which gets us somewhere as well.
Last edited by ag futbol; 07-05-2013 at 02:07 PM.