Minnesota's Wil Trapp expecting 'surreal' homecoming game against Columbus Crew

With the benefit of hindsight, Wil Trapp needed a change of scenery.

The 2019 MLS season had come to a close, and with it Trapp’s seventh season with the Columbus Crew. Not only was Columbus all that Trapp knew as a professional, but it had been home base for essentially his entire lifetime. The Gahanna product who played collegiately at Akron before signing with the Crew as a homegrown player, Trapp had seen the club go from the verge of relocation to a rebirth under new ownership thanks to the #SaveTheCrew movement.

But at the end of 2019, it was time for something new, and Trapp was traded to expansion club Inter Miami CF. He would play one season there before signing with Minnesota United FC, and it is with the Loons that Trapp will first play in his hometown as a member of the opposition.

Moving on from Columbus was a challenge, but the 30-year-old Trapp said it was a necessary move for his continued development.

“You can’t appreciate where you’ve been until you see something else,” he said. “For me, I had to go stretch those capabilities elsewhere and see something new. I wouldn’t change the decision at all. There’s always value you can take from new experiences.”

He’ll bring them with him to Lower.com Field on Friday night as Minnesota plays the Crew in the first knockout round of the inaugural Leagues Cup. The Crew advanced after beating MLS foe St. Louis City SC 2-1 and Liga MX’s Club America 4-1, while Minnesota defeated Liga MX’s Puebla 4-0 and lost 3-2 to MLS’ Chicago Fire.

Not only will this be the first time Trapp has returned to Columbus for a game, but it will be his first at the team’s new field, which opened in 2021. He’s quite familiar with Historic Crew Stadium, however, and has acquainted himself with the adjacent OhioHealth Performance Center that did not exist during his tenure.

First-year Crew coach Wilfried Nancy learned that as he was accepting the job.

“When I came in December here to visit, he was practicing with Aidan (Morris) and he was doing good exercises,” the coach said. “For me, I was able to see that he has a passion for the game. I like him. He does well in his team and good for him.”

Said Trapp: “(The place was) unrecognizable, in the best way. What Pete (Edwards) and the Haslam family have done, I texted Dr. Edwards afterwards and said, ‘This is top, top. You should be proud of it.’ ”

Nancy came to the Crew after two seasons as CF Montreal’s head coach. It wasn’t just the training with Morris that caught Nancy’s eye, even though he made sure to emphasize that they were intense workouts.

“When I was in Montreal, we were close to getting him,” Nancy said. “I like him because he’s smart and he’s a really good link-up player and a really good mentality.”

While in Columbus, that mentality helped him become the youngest player to ever be a team captain for an MLS regular-season game. He was 21 years and 122 days old when he wore the armband for a 3-3 draw at Portland on May 17, 2014. He would eventually ascend to the full-time role in 2017 and is now Minnesota’s captain.

Darlington Nagbe, the Crew’s captain, is also an Akron product. The two missed each other by one year – Nagbe’s final season with the Zips was 2010 and Trapp was a freshman in 2011 – but figure to battle plenty on Friday night.

“I think that was the first thing I thought about when I saw we were playing Minnesota,” Nagbe said. “Him coming back, being able to play in that stadium … hopefully he gets a warm welcome from the fans of the club. Definitely grateful to him for what he’s done here in the past.”

Trapp described the opportunity to come back as “surreal” and said that he had to decline an invitation to stick around for an extra day and participate in his high school’s alumni game. All of those good feelings will fly out of the roof of Lower.com Field once the opening whistle is blown and Trapp is pitted against the Crew.

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He can’t wait.

“I’m so excited to come back and see some familiar faces and awesome people and just to play what should be a very entertaining game,” Trapp said. “I hear it gets crazy loud. I’m pumped for that.”

Dispatch reporter Michael Arace and photographer Kyle Robertson contributed to this report.

ajardy@dispatch.com

@AdamJardy

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hometown talent Wil Trapp returns with Minnesota to face Columbus Crew