Columbus Crew SC will host the German Bundesliga’s Eintracht Frankfurt in an international friendly on Monday July 17 for a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff at MAPFRE Stadium. This will be Crew SC’s first match in nearly two weeks due to a Major League Soccer sanctioned break for the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Eintracht Frankfurt is taking on the Black & Gold as a part of their Summer 2017 USA tour in preparations for the 2017/18 Bundesliga season. This is the Eagles first official visit stateside. Columbus will be the Eagles' last stop on their tour, behind the Seattle Sounders (July 8) which ended in a 1-1 draw, and the San Jose Earthquakes (July 14). Eintracht finished 11th in the Bundesliga table with an overall 11-9-14 record in the 2016-17 season.
The Eagles are Crew SC’s 21st all-time international friendly, as well as the fourth German club to visit MAPFRE Stadium, following Hamburger SV (2000), Bayer Leverkusen (2001), and 1. FC Nurnberg (2002). The Black & Gold are undefeated against German teams, outscoring German opponents by an aggregate score of 15-6.
2017 will be the seventh consecutive summer that an international opponent has visited MAPFRE Stadium. Crew SC is 11-6-3 all-time in international exhibitions, last facing Liga MX club Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz from Mexico in 2016 at MAPFRE Stadium in a clash that the Black & Gold won by a 1-0 score.
Eintracht Frankfurt was founded in 1899 and has won the DFB-Pokal – Germany’s domestic cup – four times (1974, 1975, 1981, 1988), the Bundesliga once (1959), and the Europa League (1979-80) once.
Eintracht finished as finalists in the 2016-17 DFB-Pokal, falling to Borussia Dortmund, 2-1, in the final.
The Black & Gold will enter Monday night’s match well rested after a two-week break from regular season action. The last time Crew SC stepped on the pitch was for a July 4 match against Minnesota United FC that sent the boys home with a 1-0 victory thanks to forward Kekuta Manneh.
Crew SC will have the next 12 days off from play due to Major League Soccer’s 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup break. The Black & Gold will return to action when they play a friendly against German Bundesliga-side and DFB Pokal-finalist Eintracht Frankfurt on Monday, July 17 at MAPFRE Stadium in what will be a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
Columbus returns to MLS action on Saturday, July 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET at home against the Philadelphia Union.
