Arace: Can the Columbus Crew win back-to-back MLS Cup titles? They've tried before
The 29th season of MLS kicked off in Messiami Wednesday night. On the docket for Saturday is a full slate of 14 games, beginning with your defending champions, the Columbus Crew, at home against Atlanta at 2 p.m.
Can the Crew repeat?
Three teams have won back-to-back MLS Cups – D.C. United (1996-97), Houston (2006-07) and the LA Galaxy (2011-12). The Crew, then, are aiming to become the first in 12 years.
The Crew pulled off a Supporters’ Shield-MLS Cup double in 2008. While they managed to defend their Shield in 2009, it was a year that ended infamously when they were upset in the first round of the playoffs. That year, they traveled to Salt Lake City for Game 1 of a two-legged, aggregate-goal series. There, coach Robert Warzycha decided to sit the league MVP, Guillermo Barros Schelotto. After Real Salt Lake’s 1-0 victory at Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL coach Jason Kreis said, “We felt good when he wasn’t in the lineup and felt good when he didn’t come in late in the game. I felt for sure he’d come in late in the game.”
Back in Columbus for Game 2, Schelotto scored twice – but the Crew lost the game (3-2) and the series (4-2).
Warzycha remains one of the greatest players in Crew history But as a coach, he had the difficult task of following Sigi Schmid, for whom the league’s Coach of the Year trophy is now named. Alas, Warzycha is still remembered as the man who sat the incomparable Schelotto in a playoff game.
In 2020, the Crew won the MLS Cup at the end of a pandemic-truncated season. They looked like a powerhouse by midsummer – they romped to three victories in the MLS is Back tournament and were 9-1-2 through 13 games. Coming down the stretch, though, they won just three of their last 10 and looked suspect.
But the soccer gods smiled upon them. Although they were the No. 3 seed in the East, a series of upsets gave them home-field advantage through every round of the playoffs. Coach Caleb Porter and his team seized on the opportunity and ran the postseason table. In the final, they disemboweled the Seattle Sounders at the old Crew stadium. Lucas Zelarayan was the MVP.
Porter deserves massive credit for game-planning the final. He might also be damned by faint praise: The Crew won a title without winning a road game all year. Has that ever been done before? Will it ever again?
The feeling coming out of 2020 was the Crew were well ahead of schedule under new management. Alas, Porter was never again totally happy with his roster – and vice versa – and they posted just 23 victories in 68 games over the next two (playoff-less) seasons.
Enter Wilfried Nancy, the first Crew coach to be personally hired by president/GM Tim Bezbatchenko. Nancy said he was going to possess and attack, and when things got tough he jacked up the press and pushed for more attack. And when the playoffs arrived, he didn’t ask his players to go into a defensive shell when the situation demanded it. He polished the shape and fine-tuned the attack.
In 2023, in Columbus, offense wins championships.
Can the Crew repeat?
Bezbatchenko has rebuilt the Crew’s academy system, which had been destroyed by the previous owner, and created a feeder to the senior level with a successful MLS Next Pro team. Nancy’s possess-and-attack system is being taught up and down the ladder. The coach has a long history, going back to his years in Montreal, for developing talent.
The Crew starting XI from the MLS Cup championship game returns intact. They’ve added a few pieces. Also, wingback Will Sands, a starter early last season, has returned from an ACL injury.
With a flowing pipeline of talent, the continued development of young players, a year’s experience in Nancy’s system and some key fortifications, the Crew can aspire. They are in as good a shape, or better, than they were coming off Cups in 2008 and 2020.
Nancy covets the Supporters’ Shield as a measure of sustained excellence. Keep that in mind. Other available hardware includes the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the League’s Cup and, lest anyone forget, the Campeones Cup. As for the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, MLS is trying to wriggle out of that competition, or maybe even destroy it.
Odds favor the Crew adding at least one more trophy to their case. If you are a fan, you should enjoy the chase. This is a special time in franchise history, and one cannot predict how long it will last.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: As MLS season gets underway, Columbus Crew look to defend Cup title
