You are not alone. We are quite many who are unable to connect due to Google Play. Unfortunately the possible workaround they have offered doesn't work and they don't seem to care enough to do something about it, since the communication is non-existent.
We are losing thousands of crystals worth of progress but the compensation (if any) will most likely be 3 Chewy shards and 50 crystals...
I even wrote Meathead a week ago (as he had requested) but it's all radio silence.
It's insane they need to fix it or at least give updates
