Crew roster makeover continues
After a 1-0 loss at the Montreal Impact in April, first-year Crew coach Caleb Porter said his team’s performance was close to the vision he had.
Three months later, that team has won just once in the 15 games that followed and the front office has been active in moving players and assets. On Friday, the Crew signed Moroccan winger Youness Mokhtar and traded verteran goalkeeper Joe Bendik for a draft pick, marking the eighth player added to the roster and fourth traded this season.
The trajectory of the Crew (5-14-3) heading into a rematch Saturday against the Impact at Mapfre Stadium is drastically different than it was in April,
with the roster in the middle of a transition that Porter believes will make it a contender.
“We’re always going to be looking to add,” Porter said Friday. “These moves aren’t forever as well, and obviously ideally if you’re building your roster, you’re adding from the top and then the bottom drops off.”
Two of the club’s first acquisitions at the beginning of this transfer window, Romario Wiliams and young designated player Luis Diaz, made a splash Wednesday off the bench in their first appearances with the team. Diaz sent a cross into the middle of the box, where Williams headed it home for the tying goal in the 90th minute to give the Crew a 2-2 tie against the Chicago Fire.
The club will likely roll out another recent signing Saturday in goalkeeper Eloy Room, who recently received his work visa.
The two players still to join the Crew are Mokhtar and Jordan Hamilton, who was acquired from Toronto FC last week as a young depth piece at forward along with Williams. Porter said Mokhtar and Room, who both speak English, should transition in easily, and Room will be an immediate leader in the locker room.
Rebuilding the roster will continue over time, even after the season when some players’ contracts expire, opening roster spots.
“Eventually you have one, two, three guys that can get the job done,” Porter said. “And then at one point in your one, two or three, I like a young guy in at least one of those spots in all (positions) so you can build some real succession planning.”
The juice that Diaz and Williams gave off the bench was new this season, aside from Hector Jimenez’s assist in the second game. The Crew will look for the new players that have yet to make their debut to continue to inject life in the club.
“It’s good now we kind of have the full complement — outside of Jordan Hamilton being here — of the squad here now,” captain and midfielder Wil Trapp said.