Almost a Quarter of the Way Through the Season: Where Do Columbus Crew SC Stand?

It’s been a rocky start for the men in yellow (or those weird Columbus flag jerseys—but that’s neither here nor there) and it really can only go up from here. It’s also been a while since we’ve recapped so here’s a quick run through…

• Columbus Crew SC traveled to Chicago and Dallas and tied both meetings, then ended the three-game road trip with a 2-0 loss to Montreal.

• Returning to MAPFRE Stadium with motivation and fire under their butts, they pulled out a 3-2 win against the flashy NYCFC. Goals from Ethan Finlay in the seventh minute, Kei Kamara in the 49th minute and Justin Meram in the 80th minute were enough to beat a David Villa brace. In dramatic fashion, Michael Parkhurst was incorrectly sent off and Steve Clark saved the day with a lunging save to preserve three points.

• CCSC looked like a slightly closer version of the MLS Cup finalists from last year, with plenty of room to grow in the next match against Houston Dynamo. The trio of Finlay, Kamara and Meram looked motivated to push the team to a win, along with Federico Higuain. Wil Trapp still didn’t look his normal confident self, even in a win.

• The match against Houston was a wild one. A Kamara PK goal was the difference.  A red card on Houston goalkeeper Tyler Deric made the difference in this one. Though the Crew were up a man most of the game, they were called offside so many times, I honestly lost count (nine times…). The Crew maintained possession for 73.4 percent, their highest ever in the regular season, and still only managed one goal. So, here were are seven games down, 2-3-2, bumped up to sixth in the standings.

• The boys travel to Seattle to play the troubled Sounders squad this Saturday, April 30 at 4 p.m. With a little momentum, the Crew could return to Columbus with three more points. Solid games from Kamara, Finlay and Trapp will be key in the rowdy Emerald City. Plus, defender Gaston Sauro should be back in the picture after being sidelined with a hamstring injury.¹

• The Crew will have to shut down stars like Clint Dempsey and Jordan Morris, on top of facing defender and former Crew player, Chad Marshall, and former coach Sigi Schmid to get three points on the road.

• CCSC returns to Columbus for May 7 and May 14 matches against Montreal Impact and the Colorado Rapids, and I’m ready for some more heart-shaped hands celebrations.

1. I’d like to see way fewer offsides calls and continued solid passing through the midfield. In the match against the Dynamo, they maintained a passing accuracy above 80 percent, with Trapp having passing accuracy of 87.9 percent. [↩]