The Seattle Sounders have had an up and down season in 2015 for various reasons. As of late there have been more downs than ups. The Sounders have had to play multiple games this year without Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins, Osvaldo Alonso and Chad Barrett to name a few. You can add another player to that list in Stefan Frei.

Frei was injured in the first half of last week’s match at home against D.C. United. In the 29th minute of the match, Frei and Steven Birnbaum collided and Stefan came down hard on his left shoulder. It looked like it could be a severe injury and all signs pointed to him being okay until he game out during first half stoppage time. He was seen after the game in a sling and it made many Rave Green supporters worried and rightfully so.

Stefan had played every single minute of MLS action since he arrived in Seattle prior to the beginning of the 2014 MLS season. Including this year, he had played a total of 4,724 minutes. That is 52 and almost a half games for those of you at home keeping track. The 2015 season for Frei has been an all-star caliber season in the eyes of many.  Stefan currently has eight clean sheets 19 games into the season and is only one away from matching his total from all of 2014.

The good news is that the team and Head Coach Sigi Schmid don’t expect him to be out too long; "It wasn't a dislocation, it wasn't a separation. Those are the injuries you're worried about. Without that happening, it's just got to calm down and then it's almost like a pain threshold kind of thing and how quickly your range of motion comes back."

As always, it’s the next man up for Seattle. In this case the next man up is Troy Perkins. He joined the Sounders prior to the beginning of this season and has had trouble finding minutes. His only action this year has been playing 120 minutes in the Sounders 3-1 loss to the Portland Timbers during the fourth round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and the friendly early in the year against Club Tijuana.

Earlier this week, Schmid mentioned why they signed Troy for situations like this; “This is the reason we signed Troy. 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.”

Perkins was quoted as saying, “I’ve got to show the club they made a good choice in picking me up. I owe them a lot. It’s my chance to hopefully give them a little bit of payback for helping me out. I’m a veteran guy; 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.”

When he was pressed into action against D.C. United, he had a few shaking moments, but other than that he played pretty well. He will have had a full week to train and be ready for their road games against Eastern Conference cellar dweller Chicago Fire this coming Saturday.

If the Sounders want to stay at the top of the Western Conference standings, they will need a good performance from Perkins and their back four.