Crew coach says playoff match is safe to play
Unclear on outbreak’s impact on the lineup
Six Crew players tested positive for COVID-19 this week and will be unavailable for Sunday’s Major League Soccer playoff game against Nashville SC.
But Crew coach Caleb Porter said Saturday that the game is safe to play because the virus outbreak has been controlled.
Since the day after a first-round win against the New York Red Bulls in the MLS Cup playoffs, the Crew has dealt with positive tests and has modified its training schedule ahead of an Eastern Conference semifinal game against expansion club Nashville at 8 p.m. Sunday at Mapfre Stadium.
With a round of negative tests on Friday and changes implemented to protect against further spread of the virus, the consensus seems to be that risk of transmission is low or nonexistent for Sunday’s game.
“We feel like this virus is contained within our team and we feel that way based on — not my opinion — based on the experts and the doctors and the league advice,” Porter said.
Porter said he has spoken to all of
the players who have tested positive and all of them are asymptomatic.
“If (the game) wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t be excited for the game, we wouldn’t want to play the game,” Porter said, “but we rely on the doctors, our medical experts, the government, and (we) rely on the league.”
Two players initially tested positive for the coronavirus Nov. 22, then two more players tested positive two days later. On Wednesday evening, the Crew announced that four players had confirmed cases of COVID-19. Porter addressed the media Wednesday afternoon but made no mention of the cases.
After a planned off day on Thursday in which players, coaches and staff were tested, The Dispatch and ESPN reported on Friday that those results showed two more players had COVID-19, which was later confirmed by a team spokesman.
Despite the six positive tests, the spokesman said the game was not at risk of being canceled. With Friday’s test results coming back all negative, MLS approved the Crew to return to full team training.
As long as Saturday’s test results come back all negative, the Crew will have a chance to advance to the Eastern Conference finals on Sunday against Nashville.
The Crew has decided its policy is not to disclose the identities of individuals who have tested positive.
When asked how different the lineup might look against Nashville given the players unavailable due to COVID-19, Porter did not directly answer the question.
Crew midfielder Artur said he still has faith that the team will pull out a win.
“It’s still 100% confidence because we have quality in the whole group and the whole year we’ve been using different lineups and we got to where we are now,” Artur said. “Everybody’s confident in the whole team, who is on the bench, who is starting the game.
“For us, that’s an important thing. Everybody that starts the game are confident and trust each other. That is one of our strengths is (we) trust each other and play together. That’s the way we are now.”
Artur and fellow midfielder Pedro Santos said this week has been challenging, but so has the entire season. In October, the Crew had a game postponed against Orlando because two Crew team operations staff members tested positive.
Artur and Santos said they have spoken to some players who have tested positive and will be motivated to keep the season alive for them.
“They know we are a family,” Santos said. “We had a couple positives before in the past and they know we are a family. We are all together. ... Tomorrow we play for them and we try to win the game for them, too.”