COMMERCE CITY, Colo.—Axel Sjƶberg has logged the most minutes of any Colorado Rapids defender this season, one in which they've been historically good at home, so itās only fitting that he earned recognition as one of three finalists for MLS Defender of the Year.
āI think itās great,ā Rapids head coach Pablo Mastroeni told MLSsoccer.com. āIt speaks volumes to the type of work that heās done in the last year to put himself in this position.ā
The recognition has been long overdue. Earlier this season, Sjƶberg felt that he and his teammates were largely snubbed from being recognized in this seasonās AT&T MLS All-Star Game. But heās done his best to remain level headed as the season wore on.
āIt does feel good to get recognition,ā Axel Sjƶberg told MLSsoccer.com earlier this week. āI was close to making the All-Star team and some people wanted me there, but in this profession you canāt listen too much to what other people say. Youāve just got to play your game.ā
For both Sjƶberg and Mastroeni, the Defender of the Year honor – which went to FC Dallas center back Matt Hedges – is as much a recognition of what the Rapids have been able to accomplish as a team; one which has allowed the fewest goals in MLS this season.
āWe know weāve had the best team defense this year,ā Sjƶberg said. āDefense isnāt played by one person. You play defense with all 11, especially on our team. Weāve worked really hard for each other and you canāt just put it on one guy.ā
āIt speaks to the type of commitment the guys have in front of him to make his job more predictable,ā Mastroeni said. āLike everything else, itās always a team endeavor.ā
Yet Sjƶberg has been an important individual contributor to Coloradoās accomplishments garnering the big Swede attention from abroad.
Interview requests from his home country have increased, and the rumor mill has connected him to a transfer interest from his boyhood club DjurgĆ„rdens IF as well as Ćstersunds FK, both in Tier 1 of the Swedish football pyramid.
Sjƶberg shot down those rumors this week, saying there was ānothing officialā to them.
His immediate focus lies instead on the Rapidsā upcoming Western Conference Championship series, and containing a Seattle Sounders offense which has been injected with the playmaking ability of NicolĆ”s Lodeiro, an integral piece to the Sounders resurgence who wasnāt available in the two teamsā previous meetings this season – both of which took place ahead of the midseason signing.
āI think theyāre a very dangerous team to play right now, because theyāve been in a very good run of form,ā Sjƶberg said. āI think they are very confident. But we played them earlier in the year and we did well both times. The recipe is going to be very similar for us. What we did in those games weāre going to have to replicate that, just take a look at how Lodeiro has changed them a bit, and make sure we thwart that.ā