MLS allows Columbus Crew to call up goalkeeper Stanislav Lapkes vs New England Revolution

The Crew will have a backup goalkeeper against the New England Revolution on Saturday, with MLS giving the club an exception to call up MLS NEXT Pro Crew 2 goalkeeper Stanislav Lapkes to a short-term contract for a fifth time this season.

While MLS NEXT Pro players are supposed to be called up only four times in one season, MLS is allowing the Crew to promote Lapkes one more time since the team is under an extreme hardship, according to a league source. A short-term contract allows a NEXT Pro player to be with their affilated first team for four days.

With Evan Bush out for the New England game due to a broken arm, the Crew would have only one goalkeeper in Abraham Romero available if Lapkes wasn't allowed to be called up. Goalkeepers Patrick Schulte and Nicolas Hagen have both been called to international duty with their respective national teams, which is why they'll be missing the upcoming game.

This situation already happened in September, when the Crew only had Romero available at goalkeeper against the Seattle Sounders because they were not allowed to call up Lapkes or fellow Crew 2 goalkeeper Cole Johnson because they had already been called up four times this season, despite never recording playing time for the Crew.

More: Crew, MLS offer different explanations for why Crew had no backup goalkeeper vs. Seattle

According to the league, the difference for this game is that the MLS roster freeze is in effect. Once the roster freeze hit on Sept. 13, clubs are no longer able to sign new players.

In the game against Seattle, Romero would be shown a red card for causing a collison with the Sounders' Jordan Morris and the Crew's Sean Zawadzki. Without a backup goalkeeper on the bench, coach Wilfried Nancy had to put Zawadzki, a midfielder in goal and the Crew lost 4-0.

Following the game, Nancy shared his disappointment with the league for not allowing Lapkes or Johnson to be called up, despite the Crew requesting and execption.

"We traded for a fourth goalkeeper, knowing that we could have a situation like this," Nancy said. "When we asked (the league) before the game to have another call-up for our goalkeeper from the reserve team, they said no. There is a clear evolution about the way we do things and the numbers of games that we have. ... I cannot understand when there is a lack of coherence with simple rules."

Prior to the Seattle game, Lapkes was called up to for a CONCACAF Champions Cup game after Bush was injured, due to the Crew carrying three goalkeepers for those matchups. Lapkes was also on the Crew's bench for two regular-season games in which Schulte was unavilable while playing for the United States U-23 team, first against New York City FC and then against Atlanta United.

Lapkes' fourth and assumed final call up was in a friendly against the England Premier League's Aston Villa on July 27.

bmackay@dispatch.com

@brimackay15

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: MLS allows Columbus Crew to call up goalkeeper Stanislav Lapkes vs New England Revolution