Columbus Crew ready to move past goaltender incident vs New England Revolution
The Crew feel the controversial events that occurred during a game against the Seattle Sounders last month were destined to happen.
The Crew went into the game on Sept. 7 without a backup goalkeeper for starter Abraham Romero. Playing during a FIFA international window, goalkeepers Patrick Schulte and Nicholas Hagen missed the game while representing their respective national teams. Evan Bush, the last rostered goalkeeper, was sidelined with a broken arm.
For the first 45 minutes of the game, Romero had no issues and had held Seattle scoreless while recording one save. Everything changed three minutes later when Romero was shown a red card for causing a collision with the Sounders' Jordan Morris and Columbus' Sean Zawadzki.
"It’s just unfortunate what happened in the game," Crew defender Yevhen Cheberko said. "We talked about that, and we make jokes like Sean Zawadzki will be goalkeeper and he plays all positions, and this happens. So, it’s kind of funny, after the game it was, but during the game it just happened."
Romero's red card forced coach Wilfried Nancy to put Zawadzki in goal. With Zawadzki recording his first ever professional minutes at goalkeeper and the Crew down to 10 men, Seattle scored four unaswered goals to pick up a 4-0 victory.
More: Crew, MLS offer different explanations for why Crew had no backup goalkeeper vs. Seattle
Following the game, Romero was feeling guilty, according to Nancy, and wanted to have a discussion about what went wrong.
"He wanted to make clear that he wants to get better," Nancy said. "This is why he’s here. And also, he wanted to be sure that he’s still in the plan, and I said, ‘No, worries. Again, this is something like this could happen.’ So, now we had a really great discussion and after that, we move forward.”
The Crew will play during the FIFA October international window when they face the Revolution at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Both Schulte and Hagen were called up once again and Bush is still out, but MLS gave the Crew an exception this time to call up MLS NEXT Pro Crew 2 goalkeeper Stanislav Lapkes for the game.
The Crew believe that Romero has moved past the Seattle game and is ready to go.
"I see how he works every day, hard, so I feel like he will play good," Cheberko said. "He does a good job with the team, and everybody likes him. I see that, so it’s nothing to worry about."
Columbus Crew's connections to New England Revolution: DeJuan Jones, Caleb Porter
When the Revolution take the field at Lower.com Field, it will be the first time Caleb Porter coaches a game in Columbus since being fired by the Crew at the end of the 2022 season.
Porter took over in New England at the beginning of the 2024 season, but will fail to lead the club to the MLS Cup playoffs as the Revolution was eliminated from contention following their last game.
In Porter's first game against his former club, the Crew defeated New England on the road 5-1 on June 29 behind the efforts of five different players scoring. On the Revolution's starting lineup for the game was defender DeJuan Jones, who was traded to Columbus for midfielder Will Sands and $600,000 in general allocation money on July 30.
Jones, similar to Porter, will be on the opposite side of the Columbus-New England matchup to the one he's used to.
"I think obviously DeJuan brings that valuable insight, because he’s been with the organization for so long," Crew midfielder Max Arfsten said. "But at the same time, this year, they have a new coach, and we’ve played them already once before. So, we can definitely take a lot from our last matchup with them."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: MLS: Columbus Crew relying on Ambraham Romero vs New England
