Artur, Room earn MLS Team of the Week honor

The Columbus Crew continued to add to an already-impressive 2020 season as the team saw two players named to Major League Soccer’s Team of the Week. Midfielder Artur and goalkeeper Eloy Room, both pivotal in the Black & Gold’s 2-1 victory against the Philadelphia Union on Sunday at MAPFRE Stadium, earned their second and first nods respectively in the team.

Making the starting 11 for the MLS Team of the Week, Room was the standout goalkeeper across MLS after Sunday’s victory against the current leaders in the race for the 2020 Supporters’ Shield. Despite an underwhelming team loss to D.C. United on Wednesday where neither team registered a single save, Room was WhoScored.com’s man of the match against the Union. He recorded eight saves and, although conceding a penalty, single-handedly carried the Black & Gold to victory.

In the 57th minute, Room came up big to deny Union striker Sergio Santos whose shot nearly found the back of the net if not for a tremendous reaction from the Crew’s shot-stopper. Despite missing a stretch of games due to injury, Room picked up where he left off in a season that’s much improved from 2019. He currently has 12 goals conceded in 15 appearances for the Black & Gold this season, two less than his 14 conceded in 12 appearances last year.

Although a late addition to the team’s bench, Artur did enough to make his second Team of the Week in 2020. The Crew midfielder scored the pivotal opening goal in a game that was a stalemate up until his 37th minute strike from distance which found the bottom left-hand corner, beating Philadelphia backup goalkeeper Joe Bendik, formerly of the Black & Gold.

“It was a full team win,” head coach Caleb Porter said after Sunday’s match as he went on to praise the contributions of everyone in the team. “It’s important to have guys that can come off the bench and make an impact to push the starters.”

Crew midfielder Krisztian Nemeth was substituted late and scored the winner in the Crew’s 2-1 victory again the current best side in MLS. It was a goal that may have been worthy of a Team of the Week nod but nonetheless, Artur and Room were standouts in a very tight contest.

The Black & Gold have a short turn around as the season begins to wind down as the team heads on the road down south to square off against Orlando City SC, a match that was postponed due to issues surrounding COVID-19. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. ET.