TUKWILA, Wash. – It might be Troy Perkins’ time to shine.
The Seattle Sounders’ backup goalkeeper was pressed into duty Friday when starter Stefan Frei went down with a sprained left shoulder in their 1-0 victory over D.C. United. And depending on the results from an X-ray, the veteran Perkins could be in line for more action starting with Saturday’s away match against the Chicago Fire (8:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE).
“[Frei] feels much better today,” Seattle head coach Sigi Schmid said after the team’s Monday training session at Starfire Sports Complex. “It’s just a situation with range of motion and how he deals with those things. For [Seattle’s game this weekend against] Chicago it’s probably a little bit touch-and-go. But we don’t think it’s going to be a long-term thing.”
Frei is in the midst of an All Star-caliber 2015 campaign and arguably in the best run of form of his career, but Schmid said his injury isn’t expected to be a long-term issue. Even with that bit of tentative good news, Perkins, in his first year in Seattle after his offseason signing, says he’ll be ready should he be called upon to fill in for Frei.
“I’ve got to show the club they made a good choice in picking me up,” Perkins said on Monday. “I owe them a lot. It’s my chance to hopefully give them a little bit of payback for helping me out.”
Perkins has found minutes hard to come by this season, caught in something of a purgatory position between Frei – the team’s unquestioned starter – and S2, Seattle’s USL affiliate that is generally used for getting minutes to younger players.
But Perkins, 33, says he has more than enough game experience in his long career, and that there’s no reason for rust to be a factor.
“I’m a veteran guy,” Perkins said. “I’ve played plenty of games. I know a lot of these guys [well], we train every day. From day one it’s never been, ‘You’re the backup. Go sit down.’ The team and the coaching staff has always kept me involved and kept me in tune with everything.”
Schmid also said he feels perfectly confident in Perkins’ ability to hold down the position should he be forced into action for any time period in Frei’s absence.
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“This is the reason we signed Troy,” Schmid said. “He’s an experienced goalkeeper. He’s been around the league. He knows what it’s all about. As with any goalkeeper, sometimes when you’re not getting a lot of games you have to work on your timing a little more and you can’t get that timing unless you’re in games. But his experience, his shot-blocking ability, his ability to read the game are certainly things he brings.”
Sounders midfielder Osvaldo Alonso, who made his own return from injury against D.C. United, also pointed to Perkins’ veteran pedigree as a factor that should ease any transition that will take place with Frei out.
“Troy is a good goalkeeper,” Alonso said. “He’s been in the league a lot of years. I think it’s going to be good for us to have him. Now we just have to play the same [as we have with Frei].”
