I have been putting off writing this for a week and a half as I am still heartbroken that the Crew ran out of gas and got run out of the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs in Round One. It was a bitter end to what had been a glorious previous 18 months, one that produced the best soccer I’ve ever seen an MLS team play.
So, yeah. Here is my lament:
“I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: 'A pretty move, for the love of God.' And when good soccer happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don't give a damn which team or country performs it.” – Eduardo Galeano, Soccer in Sun and Shadow
Look, I’ll be honest with you: I think a lot of Galeano’s prose is corny and overwrought. But he was touched by the almighty when he spun that one up. It is, after nearly 30 years of watching MLS, and 15 years of doing it for money, the core tenet of my worldview.
And so I love Wilfried Nancy’s Columbus Crew. I love that they went to Tigres, gave up an early goal, laughed and said “Who cares?” and just kept knocking the ball around 'til they found an equalizer. I love that they did the same thing a month later at Monterrey – except this time they didn’t stop with an equalizer. This time they were sharp enough to pour in two more. They beat the brakes off the one LIGA MX side (5-2 on aggregate!) that’s claimed more MLS victims than anybody over the past two decades. And they did it by using the ball and controlling the whole game with it.
I love that they did the same against Miami in Leagues Cup, and then again vs. an LAFC team that had been on a 19W-1L-3D tear (+41 goal differential) heading into the final.
Didn’t matter. Columbus got on the ball. Columbus owned the ball. Columbus owned the game. That was the blueprint no matter what.
I go into every match I watch in desperate need of ‘a pretty move, for the love of God.’ The Crew didn’t just give that to me every now and then; they gave that to me every single game, even against the best teams on the continent, even in the games with the highest stakes, and even when the game state said Columbus should be anything but expansive and ambitious with the ball. It got to the point where I did give a damn which team was doing it. They had won my affection and sparked a genuine rooting interest. I wanted them to be rewarded for their commitment to beautiful soccer.
They sparked joy in a way few MLS teams – 2019 LAFC, 2010 RSL, 2001 Miami, 1998 D.C. United – have managed in the past.
So look, you can probably tell from the above that I probably still think the Crew are the best MLS team I’ve ever seen. And if that’s what you took from the first blurb… you are correct. What the Crew did across multiple competitions is more impressive to me than what Miami managed in winning the Shield, or even what, say, LAFC will have managed should they happen to do the US Open Cup/MLS Cup double.
But while I’ll handwave away the results and say that sometimes the best team doesn’t win, I can also admit that the Crew aren’t going to be remembered (justifiably, and obviously) as the most successful MLS team of all time, and maybe not even the most successful of this little generation.
- They got to the CCC final and failed for reasons that might’ve been beyond their control.
- They pulled the come-from-behind trick in Campeones Cup vs. Club América, but this time couldn’t win the PK shootout.
- They lost the biggest regular-season game of the year to seal second place in the Shield race.
- They ran out of gas against a dogged, opportunistic and well-prepared RBNY team in the playoffs.
They were, in short, constantly one match-winner away (more on that below).
Two trophies in two years is a great haul for most teams. Two trophies in two years when you’re playing for the right to be mentioned first or second in “Who’s the best MLS team of all time?” arguments? That’s disappointing.
I love the fact that they sold Aidan Morris mid-season and just replaced him with another academy product in Sean Zawadzki. It’s not that they were afraid to invest – they bolstered the squad with five acquisitions in the summer window – it’s that Nancy isn’t beholden to any perceived hierarchy in who’s going to play and who’s going to sit.
But, as was the case with both Morris’s sale and Nancy’s Montréal side, success will breed overseas interest in the club’s best players. Will Patrick Schulte be next out the door? What if there’s an offer for Max Arfsten? Or Cucho Hernández?
And then there’s the man himself: have we seen the last of Nancy with the Crew? By all accounts, he loves it there, and the instability of Ligue 1 isn’t exactly a siren’s song at this point. But one big piece of the Crew braintrust was lured elsewhere in 2024 (former Crew CSO Tim Bezbatchenko is at the top of the sporting side of the conglomerate that owns AFC Bournemouth of the English Premier League, as well as a few other sporting ventures around the world), and a manager as good as Nancy is going to eventually attract a godfather offer.
The clock was ticking all year. I hope it didn’t strike zero in that PK shootout loss in Harrison.
- Cucho Hernández (FW/AM): I thought he was the best player in the league this year and voted him MVP. If the Crew get a $20 million offer, though…
- Diego Rossi (LW/AM): An elite MLS player whose on-ball juice is surpassed by few, and whose off-ball work is surpassed by none. Just a perfect sidekick.
- Steven Moreira (RCB): Would things have been different vs. the Red Bulls if he wasn’t carrying that injury? Maybe. Regardless, he deservedly won Defender of the Year.
- Darlington Nagbe (DM): Still as secure on the ball as ever, though as he’s solidly in his mid-30s now, they’ve got to buy him more rest in 2025.
- Patrick Schulte (GK): One of the true developmental wins of the past few years. It wouldn’t be a shock if he was sold this offseason.
If Nancy sticks around and Cucho sticks around, then I have no worries about what 2025 will bring. I’d expect big steps forward from the guys they acquired in the summer window, as well as improvement from first-time starters like Arfsten and Zawadzki. Taha Habroune should graduate into some real minutes. I also see some built-in failsafes should cornerstones Christian Ramírez and Rudy Camacho, both now in their mid-30s, suddenly get old.
The issue is what I mentioned in the second section: this team, competing across multiple competitions with the intent to win them all, was always a match-winning piece away. It was supposed to be Marino Hinestroza but, well, it definitely wasn’t. And the only other U22 on the roster – the now-departed Alexandru Matan – saved all his energy for one monster performance against former coach Caleb Porter and the Revs. In the biggest games, those guys didn’t move the needle.
Now the Crew have, at minimum, two U22 slots to use (three if they part ways with Hinestroza). They could also potentially add another DP, as they have the ability to open up a slot by buying down Nagbe.
When Toronto FC got so, so close in 2016 – one match-winner away – they responded in that offseason by going out and bringing in Victor Vázquez. In the 2017 MLS Cup he was, indeed, a match-winner. And across that season they weren’t just the best MLS team of all time: they became the most successful MLS team of all time. And they are, to date, the only MLS club to do a domestic treble.
That’s got to be the goal for Crew ownership and CSO Issa Tall this offseason. One more piece. One more year. One more chance to win everything. For the love of god, and the beautiful game.
