At first, Sean Zawadzki thought discussions around him potentially playing as a makeshift goalkeeper on Saturday night were in a somewhat joking manner. Yes, Zawadzki is the Crew player who seemingly plays every position, but he’s a midfielder, and this was in the days leading up to the game.
But then we all know what happened Saturday night. Late in the first half, goalkeeper Abraham Romero was sent off, the Crew were reduced to 10 minute and suddenly the Ohio native found himself wearing gloves beneath The Nordecke.
“When it happened, I was just trying to do whatever I could, whenever it kind of came near me, whatever it was,” he said.
He did his best, as did the Black & Gold with their situation, as players away on international break – and a lack of multiple goalkeeping options – coincided with a 4-0 loss to Seattle at Lower.com Field.
In his post-match press conference, Nancy celebrated his players being away on international duty. For example, Patrick Schulte was with the U.S. Men’s National Team and Nicholas Hagen was with Guatemala.
“I'm really proud of all the players that went with their national team,” Nancy said. “I'm not complaining. I don't complain about that. I have no problem with that. I do this job for that.”
The trouble was, though, Romero was the Crew’s only goalkeeper in the matchday squad. Because Crew 2 players can only be called up four times before earning a professional contract – and the Crew had already done so – they asked the league for an additional call-up and were rejected.
“We are at 39 matches played,” Nancy said about the Crew across all competitions. “We were mandated to have three goalkeepers on the team sheet for CCC (Concacaf Champions Cup). This is what we did. We had to use a call-up for a friendly game against Aston Villa.
“Why I'm not happy before the game and all the week it happened, I was not happy about that because there is a rule, as you know, we can use only four times, four call-ups [for] one player from the reserve team who has a contract.
“You know the issue that we had with the goalkeepers with Evan Bush. We tried to anticipate and we trade for adding a fourth goalkeeper, knowing that we could have a situation like this today. When we asked before the game to have another call-up for our goalkeeper for the reserve team, they said no, knowing that this game [against] Seattle we were supposed to play this game in [May].”
So, the Crew played with 10 men, one of which being Zawadzki.
But the Leagues Cup champions and defending league champions will move on. On Saturday, the Black & Gold travel south to face FC Cincinnati in the Hell is Real derby at TQL Stadium. Of course, the match is a repeat of last year’s Eastern Conference Final.
By then, the international players will return to the Crew, and the bragging rights will be on the line. A win in Cincinnati would move the Black & Gold to second in the Eastern Conference – ahead of Cincinnati.
