A scrum of reporters gathered around midfielder Abuchi Obinwa’s stall in the Crew locker room at Mapfre Stadium on Monday night.

Also playing the role of reporter was Crew SC center back Jonathan Mensah, who filmed with his phone and jokingly shouted, “Superstar.”

The moment was an example of teammates having fun with teammates — it came after the Crew’s 1-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in a friendly — but it was understandably a big one for Obinwa, 20, who made his first appearance with the Crew after signing with the club in January.

Obinwa, a central midfielder, subbed on for Mohammed Abu in the 67th minute.

“Honestly all day I was kind of nervous and excited at the same time,” Obinwa said. “As a kid I called it having butterflies in my stomach, so that’s honestly what I had the whole day.”

As he took the field, he said he waved to his uncle and cousin, both of whom were in the stands watching him.

“I thought I did really well. Coming in in the last 30 was a good decision by Gregg because it was going to be my first game and i think he wanted to put me in the best position to play my best, so I think I did pretty well,” Obinwa said. “Right as I was about to come in (the jitters went away).”

Obinwa, who was born in Westerville, fared well in his 23 minutes on the field, and the Crew limited Eintracht Frankfurt to only a couple chances late. A strong save by Brad Stuver in the 83rd minute preserved the shutout.

“I think our training and making sure we closed down the middle really affected them because they could only play wide,” Obinwa said. “Wide doesn’t really get you close to the goal, so I think once we closed down the middle it limited their opportunities and made our job a lot easier.”

Trapp goes deep

A Wil Trapp deep pass started the play that led to Crew SC’s lone goal against Eintracht Frankfurt, and he delivered several others over the course of the first half.

After the game, coach Gregg Berhalter said the Crew is a different team when Trapp is able to effectively deliver deep passes to the attacking group.

“I mean, they could have been a little cleaner. The ones to Hector (Jimenez) weren’t as good as I would have liked, but I think the ones to Ola over the center back pretty much put him in a goal. They were playing a high line and I think we did a decent job of recognizing it,” Trapp said. “Cristian takes a good touch, Ola makes a good run, we score. Just continuing to hammer home those points and on the defensive side I thought we did a great job as well.”

Stuver produces clean sheet

Stuver was busier in the second half — three of his four saves came in the final 45 minutes — but fared well in his second opportunity this season, holding Frankfurt scoreless.

“I felt good tonight. I think both back lines did extremely well,” Stuver said. “They organized and they were communicating the entire game and no matter who was out there they were communicating and making my job really easy.”

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