Soccer 'It works, what we do': How Columbus Crew are moving on after Orlando City SC loss
Wilfried Nancy knows the “coachspeak,” the pep talks centered around aggressiveness and intensity, fighting and winning each and every battle against an opponent.
Aggressiveness was not the Crew’s problem Saturday against Orlando City SC. If anything, Nancy said, aggressiveness is what got the Crew in trouble, causing fouls that led to the game-tying and game-winning set-piece goals that left his team stunned, having led by two goals with less than 20 minutes left in regulation.
“This is the nuance between ‘be aggressive’ and ‘make a play,’ ” Nancy said. “And for me, we have to make a play.”
The Crew, Nancy said, did not make a play at the right moment, serving as the difference between a second-place position in the Eastern Conference standings as opposed to remaining in fifth.
And for Alex Matan, it still hurts. The Crew midfielder said he has not moved on entirely from the loss. But that hasn’t changed the way he or his teammates approached training ahead of the Crew’s home game against Chicago Fire FC Wednesday.
“We don’t change anything,” Matan said. “We still go there and try to do whatever we’ve been doing for the past eight, nine months. We are confident (that) with this type of work, we will go far.”
How Wilfried Nancy helped change the Columbus Crew mindset
For Nancy, this is the message he’s been trying to instill in the past 48 hours.
For the first 70 minutes against Orlando, Nancy said, the Crew played their game: an aggressive and possession-based brand of soccer that has developed into one of the most dynamic offenses in the league, leading MLS in goals scored, while scoring seven times in the past two games.
But in the final 20 minutes, Nancy said the Crew did not respond with the boost of intensity needed against an Orlando team playing with "desperation," instead watching a Yevhen Cheberko header fall in front of Orlando’s Ramiro Enrique for the game-tying score before Enrique hit the game-winner in the 97th minute.
“If I hide the scoreboard, the only way to see if we’re able to do a good job is to keep doing what we are doing,” Nancy said. “And for me, that’s a key point that they have to understand. It works, what we do. Sometimes we’re going to have to adjust, (but) stay about what you are doing now. Don’t think about the scoreboard.”
For Nancy, it was about being honest and embracing "the suck," addressing the team multiple times between the Orlando loss and Monday's training, talking about mental strength and finding a way to make plays in the right moment, never straying from the principle of facing "a state of play" rather than an opposing team.
Midfielder and Crew captain Darlington Nagbe said Nancy’s message centered around pride, taking more ownership of little things like set-pieces to stay strong in those impactful moments the team fell victim to Saturday.
Nagbe said he wasn’t angry with the Orlando result. It was a game the Crew let slip, he said.
“You look at that game, I think we went into a tough environment and had a lead, and should have won the game, in my opinion,” Nagbe said. “I think we can build off that, knowing you just need to fix just a couple things, nothing major. Just secure the last 15 minutes and you get a win in a tough environment. And that shows you can go to even more places and do that.
"I don’t think it did anything to our confidence. It’s just more disappointment."
The Crew will have more opportunities to build off their latest road loss before the postseason arrives.
After the Crew’s home game Wednesday against Chicago, three of the team’s five regular season matches are away from Lower.com Field, including bouts against two playoff-bound teams: New England and Atlanta.
In road games this season, the Crew are 3-8-3.
But Monday, heading into a home game Wednesday against Chicago, Nancy said the Crew moved on, something he said his mother-in-law encouraged him to do.
“She told me, ‘Wilfried, your eyes are in front. Your eyes are not behind,’ ” Nancy said. “We look forward.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew face quick turnaround after Orlando City SC loss
