A chance for a trophy and a consequential MLS game, Columbus Crew enter biggest week of season
Jacob MyersThe momentum the Crew have generated with three straight wins at home and seven points in the last three games could grow tenfold or completely evaporate by the end of next weekend.
First up, the Crew can add a trophy to the team's historic trophy case by winning the third edition of the Campeones Cup, which pits the prior season’s Liga MX champion against the reigning MLS Cup champion. And that will be followed by a weekend road match with the Philadelphia Union. Results of that game will go a long way toward determining whether the Crew will be one of seven teams from the East to make the MLS playoffs.
After a 2-1 win against CF Montreal Saturday at Lower.com Field, it’s clear the Crew have rediscovered a bit of the swagger that defined the club's run to its second-ever MLS Cup title last season but which has been absent since late July when a six-game losing streak began.
Two weeks ago, with eight losses in nine games, it seemed like there was no chance the Crew could be in good enough spirits to take on one of the best teams in North America and still believe it would make the MLS playoffs.
The Crew are still underdogs in every respect, but there’s a credible sense of optimism regarding Columbus' upcoming two games.
"It's going to be an exciting week, on one hand, and yet, there's a ton of pressure in all these games,” Crew coach Caleb Porter said prior to playing Montreal. “I'm excited. This is why you coach. This is the time of year where you really define who you are as a player, as a team, as a coach.”
The Crew will face Cruz Azul Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Lower.com Field, the first international game at the new downtown stadium. Cruz Azul won the Mexican top division’s “Clausura” season and defeated Club Leon, winners of the “Apertura” season, in the Campeon de Campeones game to advance to the Campeones Cup against the MLS champion.
The Campeones Cup began in 2018. That year, Crew attacking midfielder Lucas Zelarayan captured the trophy with Tigres UANL against Crew general manager Tim Bezbatchenko’s Toronto FC squad. The next season, Crew midfielder Darlington Nagbe won the title with Atlanta United against Club America. The 2020 game was canceled due to the pandemic.
Earlier this season, the Crew were ousted from CONCACAF Champions League by Mexican club CF Monterrey. In the home leg at least, the Crew showed it can compete against international competition with a 2-2 draw.
Since then, midfielder Artur, center back Josh Williams and left back Milton Valenzuela — three players integral to the Crew’s championship run in 2020 — have missed a combined 53 games. But the Crew are relatively healthy now.
“We're not the same team that we were a couple weeks ago,” Williams said. “We're attacking from here on out.”
As much as any team wants to put more hardware in the trophy case, the game against the Union on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Subaru Park is likely more important.
The Union (10-7-8, 38 points) are in fourth place with two fewer games played than the Crew (9-11-7, 34 points), and Columbus currently sits three points out of the final playoff spot. To make the playoffs, the Crew must likely win at least once more on the road. From a morale standpoint, doing so against a team also trying to keep its playoff spot would help a lot more than one against a team already firmly in the playoff picture.
With three days off between the Campeones Cup and the weekend bout against Philadelphia and a full week off afterward, Porter may have some incentive to play his best lineup in both contests.
Take your pick as to which game would mean more to win. The Crew just can’t lose both.
Winning both, however, would send a message around the league: No one should want to play the Crew if it sneaks into the playoffs.
jmyers@dispatch.com
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