They played the roles of Diego Rossi, Julian Gressel, Malte Amundsen, Rudy Camacho and Christian Ramirez. But the most important transfer for the Columbus Crew, the move that transformed the team that missed the play-offs in the previous two years into the 2023 MLS champions, was the capture of the head coach.
Whatever compensation the crew paid Montreal to hire Wilfried Nancy a year ago was worth it. First Nancy turned Columbus into the most enthusiastic team in the league. Then he turned them into the biggest winners.
Relating to: Columbus Crew edge LAFC to win second MLS Cup in four years
The 46-year-old player, who was a defender in the lower league in France, became an academy coach in Montreal in 2011, was promoted to assistant in 2016, and was promoted to head coach in 2021 after the departure of Thierry Henry. He exceeded expectations by leading Montreal to the playoffs as the Eastern Conference runner-up last year, but reportedly fell out with team owner Joey Saputo. Tim Bezbatchenko, the Crew’s canny general manager, pounced.
Nancy quickly turned Columbus into the most gonzo team in MLS: fiercely pressing, determined attackers, top scorers and the team with the most possession in the regular season, but squandering winning positions as if lockdown meant a betrayal of ideological purity, a failure of courage tend to do. . They shrugged off the mid-season departure of their talismanic midfielder Lucas Zelarayan and put their faith in 22-year-old rookie goalkeeper Patrick Schulte.
In Saturday’s MLS Cup final against Los Angeles FC, the team played in their black-and-gold jerseys: swarming like wasps on lemonade. It was the kind of fast, aggressive, varied and overwhelming offensive display that former Crew coach Gregg Berhalter would love to put on at a major tournament with the U.S. men’s national team.
Overwhelmed in the first half at Lower.com Field, LAFC failed in its bid to retain the trophy, losing its third final of the year following defeats in the Concacaf Champions League and Campeones Cup.
“Our performance tonight was excellent,” Nancy told reporters. He became the first Black coach to win the MLS Cup in the league’s 28th season. “I’m very proud of it because there’s a lot of work behind it,” he said. “There was a lot of courage behind this. But at the same time, I’m not happy because this is not normal. It’s that simple.”
As the founding members of MLS win their second title in the last four seasons and their third title overall in front of a sell-out crowd in their stylish new stadium, it’s worth remembering that it’s only been five years since fans successfully rallied to save them. The team’s previous owner, Anthony Precourt, planned to move the franchise to Austin, Texas, where it was easier to sell corporate sponsorships to tech companies and where a booming local economy meant more fans could pay $14 for a beer.
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“Crew SC is near the bottom of the league in all business metrics,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said in 2017. But it was misdirection to embarrass the fans and deflect from the lack of ownership. Garber, who green-lighted the Crew’s move to Austin before it was purchased by the Cleveland Browns’ owners in 2019 and with Precourt already taking a team in Texas, was eager, as always, to highlight the positives in his halftime interview. on Fox on Saturday.
“Columbus is a great story,” he said. “Out of adversity comes opportunity, there is a lot of courage and vision that has built what we have here, this incredible fan base and a team that performs so well on the pitch. Everyone must choose their own path.”
When you think about it, not everyone is convinced that the sporting equivalent of attempted murder is actually a valuable learning experience. On a rainy night in the Ohio state capital, Garber was booed by the incredible fanbase before the trophy was handed over to captain and four-time champion Darlington Nagbe. At least they had little to complain about.
After an interminable and incomprehensible playoff format in which 18 teams played 28 games over 46 days, two men from the middle of the league’s payroll made it to the show. For all its talent, the team perhaps owed its place to the irresponsibly exuberant personality of Cincinnati defender Matt Miazga, a New Jersey native and former New York Red Bulls player who was suspended for the Ohio-Ohio Eastern Conference final.
Miazga entered the referee’s room amid chaos in the previous round following his second yellow card for blowing kisses and making a heart-shaped hand gesture to angry Red Bulls fans after scoring in the penalty shoot-out. Without MLS defender of the year against Columbus, Cincinnati’s makeshift defense took a 2-0 lead late and conceded in overtime to lose 3-2. Love hurts.
The predictable pattern of Saturday’s game contrasted with last year’s sensational finale; LAFC’s shootout victory over the Philadelphia Union, which came after a 3-3 draw, added layers upon layers of absurd developments to the plot.
This time around, the roping tactics that had seen pragmatic LAFC get past the Seattle Sounders and toothless Houston Dynamo in the previous two rounds were ineffective, leaving Steve Cherundolo’s team looking tense and constricted against creative and spirited opponents.
LAFC had 31% of possession at Seattle and 30% of possession at home by Houston, so a 38% possession against Columbus was an improvement. Yet the visitors were so battered and bewildered, so far behind in midfield, that they were unable to break out of counter-attacking mode and take the initiative after being two goals down.
Cucho Hernández, who signed from Watford for $10 million in 2022, scored the first goal from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute after Diego Palacios’ handball. Four minutes later Amundsen’s beautiful pass allowed Yaw Yeboah to double the lead. Denis Bouanga responded in the 74th minute, but the climax of the game was relatively quiet for Nancy. Bouanga and Carlos Vela rarely threatened LAFC up front in what was likely his farewell match for the club. Giorgio Chiellini, 39, bravely tried to hold the defense together in his final game before retiring.
“Did Columbus deserve to win tonight? Yes, they did,” LAFC coach Cherundolo told reporters. “They played a great game. Do I think they were better than us? No, I think they were better than us tonight and we made a few mistakes defensively and that led to them scoring two goals. And that’s pretty much it. That’s how these games are decided.”
This assessment does the Columbus coach a disservice by ignoring context. Cherundolo set up his side to score. Nancy assembled her team to seize the day.