Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei was driven off the field by ambulance and taken to a hospital to be evaluated for head and neck injuries at the end of a Major League Soccer match against the Columbus Crew on Sunday.
Frei was alert as he left the field, Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer said. “His fingers were moving, so he was OK in that regard,” Schmetzer said. “No paralysis, nothing major, but obviously I don’t want to downplay it.”
Frei jumped forward to make a play on a free kick, and as he came down, his head collided with the knee of a Crew player. Frei dropped to the turf at Lumen Field and teammates signaled to the sideline for help.
With the match tied at 1-1 deep in stoppage time, Schmetzer and Crew coach Wilfried Nancy appealed to the referee to end it. As Frei was stretchered to the waiting ambulance, Seattle fans chanted his first name.
Schmetzer became emotional when describing how Nancy agreed to call the game, although the Crew had won a corner kick in the final moments.
“I appreciate what he did, because the ref wasn’t going to stop the game, and everybody knew the game should have been stopped,” Nancy said. “So good on him. So thank you, Wilfried.”
Frei, 39, has played for the Sounders since 2014. He helped Seattle win the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019, and he was named MLS Cup MVP in 2016. He was an All-Star in 2017.
The Sounders said Frei made his 1,000th regular-season save with the team in the first half. Only former Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando (1,128) has more with a single team.
Born in Switzerland, Frei’s family moved to the United States when he was a teenager, and he was a standout at the University of California.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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