KEEPERS OF THE FAITH
Toronto FC goalkeeper Alex Bono looks to cap Reds’ stellar season with a championship Saturday,
Alex Bono watched from the bench when Seattle Sounders’ goalkeeper Stefan Frei made the biggest save of last year’s MLS Cup final.
It came in the 108th minute at BMO Field, a game which would ultimately be decided by a penalty shootout in Seattle’s favour. Toronto FC striker Jozy Altidore’s header off a cross from Tosaint Ricketts looked destined for the top right corner of the Sounders’ net when Frei got a hand to the ball to push it wide of the post.
“Jozy heads the ball and it looks like there’s only the goal in front of him, and then there comes a flying person and a raised hand out of nowhere and it swipes it away,” Bono reminisced this week.
“It’s one of those moments where you’re on your feet jumping, your hands are up, and then all of a sudden your hands are over your face and they come down over your mouth, just in disbelief.”
This year, the 23-year-old — no stranger to show-stopping saves himself, especially during Reds’ current playoff run — will get his shot to be the last line of defence for his team in the final. After taking the No. 1 job from last year’s Cup starter, Clint Irwin, Bono is expected to face Frei on Saturday afternoon as the two teams go head-to-head in a rematch of the December 2016 contest.
While the two ’keepers have no per- sonal connection, they are linked when it comes to franchise history. Coming into this season Frei, who played for Toronto from 2009 to 2013, was the benchmark for goalkeepers when it came to the Reds’ record book. That is until Bono, in his second season with Toronto’s first team, surpassed Frei’s mark for most career MLS wins by a TFC ’keeper and most shutouts in a single season this year.
But who came before him isn’t something Bono is concerning himself with this week. Nor does it really matter who will be between the posts at the other end of the field in Saturday’s championship match.
“(Frei’s) a good ’keeper, solid ’keeper. Honestly, I haven’t gotten to watch him a lot of him this year but it seemed like every time there was a save of the week voting, he was in there for it,” Bono said.
“I know he’s a strong ’keeper, I know he has a lot of talent and I know his defenders like to help him out just like mine do me. I’m not quite concerned about his play. We have the ability, our attacking staff on our team, to beat him, as we do every keeper in the league.”
There was little to differentiate the two shot-stoppers this season.
Frei, who started 33 games, made 84 saves over the course of the year for a 69.4 per cent save percentage. He averaged 1.09 goals against per game and managed 13 clean sheets.
Bono, who started five fewer games in the regular season, had 72 saves and a 69.2 per cent save percentage. He averaged 1.12 goals against per game and set a new club record with 10 clean sheets.
In the post-season, Bono has allowed two goals and made eight saves so far. Frei has made half the number of saves; nothing has found the back of his net these playoffs. In fact, Seattle hasn’t conceded a goal in six games, going back to an Oct. 1loss to the Philadelphia Union.
While Reds coach Greg Vanney has said he expects Saturday’s match will have some goals in it, Frei said it would be counter-productive for the Sounders to allow the game to be wide open.
“They have some players, especially in their attacking part of the field, where they’re very, very dangerous, they’re lethal and we’re not going to want to give them too much space,” he said. “We’re going to want to stay compact and organized and make it difficult for them but take care of our chances when we get them.”
Frei called himself “very fortunate” to play behind 10 teammates who take pride in behind defensively sound.
“It really helps me tremendously as a goalkeeper because I don’t want to see any shots, preferably, and I know the guys in front of me are doing everything they can to try to achieve that.”