Football Season Guide

The first year under their French manager Wilfried Nancy turned into a magical historic season with the Crew crowned the 2023 MLS champions. All season Columbus were scoring goals with great ease and Nancy’s modern tactics with flying wing-backs made the Crew a team hard to contain. Early in the campaign there were too many mistakes made in defence but after the summer break those were sorted out and the Crew won it all. They didn’t have the best record in their Conference, but come the play-offs Columbus Crew had the best record over the final 10 rounds of the regular season and this momentum helped them to win every series, including the MLS Final vs defending champions LAFC. Cucho Hernández had a season of excellence in 2023. He was scoring practically in every game for the last 3 months of the campaign. Naturally, after such a year no major departures or new arrivals have happened so far in the winter. In Nancy’s second season the main challenge will be to find balance between playing MLS matches and CONCACAF Champions League ones, something even the deep team of LAFC struggled with last season. This is what could make it hard for Columbus to secure a high position during the regular season. Still, come play-off time the defending champions will be one of the main contenders again. They showed last season that they can beat any team home or away, when allowed to execute Nancy’s game plans.