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Seattle Sounders’ goalkeeper Stefan Frei was withdrawn from the field in an ambulance during the Sunday match against Columbus’s crew after a frightening collision.
In the middle of a 1-1 match, Frei jumped to play on a free kick. As he went down, his head collided with the knee of a crew player. Frei fell on the ground and the players around him reported help immediately.
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Sounders FC’s goalkeeper Stefan Frei is preparing for the match against Columbus Crew in Lumen Field in Seattle on July 6, 2025. (Images Kevin Ng-Imagn)
He was alert when leaving the field, said Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer. He was assessed for head and neck injuries.
“His fingers were moving, so he was fine in this regard. No paralysis, nothing major, but obviously I don’t want to minimize it,” said Schmetzer.
Schmetzer and crew coach Wilfried Nancy called on the referees to stop the match. He applauded Nancy for calling the oniicials while Columbus received a corner kick in the last moments.
The goalkeeper wrote on social networks on Monday that he was back home.
Doctors meet around the goalkeeper of Sounders FC Stefan Frei after being injured during the Columbus crew match in Lumen Field in Seattle on July 6, 2025. (Images Kevin Ng-Imagn)
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“Always try to understand what happened at the end of the game,” wrote Frei on X, “but I am incredibly grateful to all the staff who took care of me and happy to be back home now.
“What resonates are all the messages, calls and love that I have received from so many of you.”
Frei, 39, was born in Switzerland but moved to the United States when he was a teenager. He played university football in Cal.
He has been with the Sounders since 2014 and was one of their winning teams in the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019. It was the MVP of the 2016 MLS CUP and an All-Star in 2017.
He was with the Toronto FC from 2009 to 2013 before joining Seattle.
The Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei reacts during the Cup Group B club match against Atletico Madrid in Seattle on June 19, 2025. (AP photo / Ryan Sun, file)
The MLS veteran appeared in 425 games, from 424 of them. He played in 343 games for the Sounders. The team said that he had made his 1,000th regular season stop in the match against the crew and that only the former goalkeeper of Real Salt Lake Nick Rimando has more with a single team with 1,128.
