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Sunday’s scheduled match for the Columbus Crew on the road against Orlando City has been postponed until further notice. The decision was announced late Saturday night that Columbus’ match is postponed along with FC Dallas’ game against Minnesota United.
According to the team’s website, the decision to delay came after two Crew staff members had confirmed positive tests for COVID-19 on Friday. Saturday’s training session was suspended and the team has now undergone extensive contact tracing to go along with multiple health and safety protocols.
This is the first time in 2020 that the Black & Gold have had a match postponed because of COVID-19 but not the first time the team has dealt with a COVID-19 case. One Crew player had a positive coronavirus test entering the Orlando bubble for the MLS is Back Tournament. None of Columbus’ MLS is Back matches were postponed after the team took the necessary steps to ensure there wasn’t an outbreak amongst the team.
The next step for Crew before the team finds out when this match against Orlando City will be played is to find out if coronavirus spread from these staff members to other people around the club. The team, coaches, staff members and more will have to undergo more tests over the next few days to determine if the virus has spread.
Franklin County is currently a Level 2 county in Ohio in regards to coronavirus spread. According to the Ohio Public Health Advisory, it’s the second lowest level of spread and indicates increased exposure and spread of coronavirus. Level 3 is very high and Level 4 is severe.
The timing comes amidst a congested stretch of games for Columbus in October to end the regular season. The Black & Gold haven’t won their last three matches running and this encounter with fourth-place Orlando City is as important a game as Crew have had all season. The team is fresh off a 2-1 loss to Montreal on Wednesday night at MAPFRE Stadium, their first home loss of 2020. Columbus’ only wins away from home have come in Orlando at the MLS is Back Tournament back in July.
This is an ongoing story and Massive Report will have more updates on the story.