A frightening scene unfolded at Lumen Field on Sunday as Seattle Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei was carted off the field in an ambulance following an on-field collision late in the match against the Columbus Crew. The incident occurred in stoppage time after Frei jumped to defend a free kick and his head collided with the knee of a Crew player.
The 39-year-old Frei immediately fell to the ground, prompting his teammates to signal for medical assistance. After several minutes of evaluation on the field, medical personnel brought an ambulance onto the pitch, and Frei was carefully placed on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital. He is being evaluated for head and neck injuries.
Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer stated that Frei was alert and had movement in his extremities as he left the field. "His fingers were moving, so he was OK in that regard. No paralysis, nothing major, but obviously I don't want to downplay it," Schmetzer said. According to reports, Frei appeared to exhibit a fencing response after the collision, a posture sometimes seen after head trauma.
With the score tied 1-1 deep into stoppage time, the gravity of the situation led to a collaborative decision to end the match prematurely. Schmetzer and Crew coach Wilfried Nancy agreed to appeal to the referee, Ismir Pekmic, to halt the game. Despite Columbus being awarded a corner kick in the final moments, Nancy insisted on ending the match. "I appreciate what he did, because the ref wasn't going to stop the game, and everybody knew the game should have been stopped,” Schmetzer said. “So good on him. So thank you, Wilfried".
The unsettling scene cast a pall over the match, with the crowd of 30,552 falling silent. As Frei was being taken off the field, the Brougham Supporters broke the silence by chanting "Stef-an, Stef-an". Both teams remained in the penalty area until the ambulance left the stadium.
Despite the unfortunate end to the game, Frei reached a milestone earlier in the match, recording his 1,000th regular-season save for the Sounders. He is second all-time in this category with a single team, behind only retired Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando (1,128). The Swiss-born goalkeeper has been with the Sounders since 2014 and has been instrumental to the team's success, including MLS Cup victories in 2016 and 2019. He was also named the MLS Cup MVP in 2016 and an All-Star in 2017.
The Sounders had tied the game earlier when Paul Rothrock scored in the 43rd minute, responding to a 27th-minute goal from Columbus' Diego Rossi. The match also saw Seattle play down a man after Kalani Kossa-Rienzi received a second yellow card in stoppage time. In the 60th minute, Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte needed medical attention after colliding with Sounders forward Danny Musovski.
