ORLANDO, Fla. - On the surface, it's pretty obvious why the Crew's Eastern Conference semifinals victory against Orlando City SC was special for both Christian Ramírez and Patrick Schulte .
Schulte was at the helm of the Crew defense that not only shut out Orlando City, but also kept them from getting a shot on target until the 100-minute mark - on their home field. And for every one of those three shots on goal from Orlando City, Schulte was there to make the save.
As of Ramírez, after spending the first 90 minutes of the match on the sidelines, the eight-year MLS veteran secured his team a spot in the Eastern Conference Final with a quick goal from the left side of the goalie box in overtime.
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For Ramírez and Schulte, however, there's more to the story that makes the victory on Saturday even more special than expected.
On the Tuesday leading up to the Crew's trip to Orlando, Ramírez and his wife, Valerie, spent hours in the hospital thinking they were about to have their third child. What would turn out to be a false alarm meant that Ramírez and his family were still on "baby watch" during the second-round matchup.
So, once the final minute in overtime ran out, Ramírez had only one postgame plan in mind, getting home to his wife.
Despite knowing that it was a possibility that she could go into to labor while he was gone, it was Valerie who encouraged him to go to the semifinal. Luckily for the couple, by the end of Saturday's game the baby still hadn't come, allowing Ramírez to hold out hope that his son would wait for his return home.
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"Hopefully she can go into labor tomorrow." Ramírez said postgame. "Not tonight."
At the beginning of the 2023 season, Schulte took the field as an MLS starting goalkeeper for the first time. What was the start of his professional soccer career, didn't go the exact way he might have hoped for as he gave up four goals on five targets on the road against Philadelphia.
On the bench for the next three games, Schulte didn't get back in the net for a whole month. When he did get the chance to start again, he used his playing time to start building up an impressive resume. In the three games following his season opener, he recorded two shutouts.
"It's been a roller coaster," Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said of Schulte's season. "It's normal because he's in his first year as a first goalkeeper in MLS. So, I knew that he would fail, and I always told him that the objective is not about how he's going to fail, it's about how he's going to react and all year he was able to accept the challenge."
Nothing could be a better example of Schulte's ability to accept the challenge than comparing his last performance against Orlando City to the one he had Saturday. The one and only time Schulte stood in the net in Orlando prior to the playoffs was in September. Despite a strong start, he allowed the two game-winning goals in the final minutes of the game.
This time around, he not only held Orlando City scoreless, but did it in a matchup that had an extra 30 minutes.
While Schulte notes that he's been taking each moment to try to better himself and has been learning from his mistakes, the fact that he's managed to work his way into this position was something he thought would be possible at the beginning of this season.
"I knew the work I was putting in and just to have the trust from the team and the coaching staff and the front office. I'm just very thankful," Schulte said. "From last year to this year and where we are now, it's been a crazy journey."
Schulte has another chance to prove himself at 6 p.m. Saturday as the Crew head to their inner-state rivals for the MLS Cup Eastern Conference Finals against FC Cincinnati.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Crew's playoff win over Orlando is extra special for two key players
