Time for stumbling Crew to flip ‘on’ switch
The Us-vs.-the World trope is as old as us and, probably, the world. In sports, it is manufactured and repackaged on a regular basis. Oftentimes, it is artificial, but on rare occasions organic.
It is real for the Crew – especially to the fans, who have been fighting against the spectral forces of MLS for 25 years. It’s at the existential heart of their Massive ethos. For example: The league tried to steal their team and move it to Austin, and the league lost. Where else does that happen?
The smaller skirmishes continue. For instance: Long have Crew fans (and, at times, team management) railed against the lack of national exposure. Even in those years when the team has contended, the league and its rights-holders have barely noticed. Why put Columbus on national TV when teams in New York, LA, Atlanta or Seattle are playing?
Obviously, market size and ratings have something to do with it. Yet, if you’re a Crew fan, you’ve put up with this for 25 years and it still raises your hackles. And you look forward to weekends such as this.
Sunday offers the rare occasion when the bright lights will be shining on Mapfre Stadium. The Philadelphia Union (13-3-5), in first place in the Eastern Conference and holder of the best record in the league, will face the Crew (10-5-5), the third-place team in the conference.
The game starts at 3:30 p.m. Jon Champion and Taylor Twellman will have the call on ABC. Richard Mendez and Alex Pareja will call it in Spanish on ESPN Deportes.
Crew fans are hoping their team shows up.
If there’s a big “ON” switch for coach Caleb Porter to flip, now’s the time. It has been awful dark around here. Show some genius and flip it.
The Crew is 1-4-2 with nine goals for and 12 allowed in its previous seven games. The one highlight was a 3-1 romp over NYCFC at Mapfre on Oct. 18. Otherwise, it has been a bad jag at a bad time, heading into the final nine days of the regular season.
The egregious, 3-1 loss to Toronto FC on Sept. 27 in East Hartford, Connecticut, was awful – but at least Toronto is a contender. What has been difficult for fans to watch is how the Crew, which should be aspiring, has played down to inferior competition.
Coming away with one point in the past three road games – in Cincinnati, Houston and D.C. – is disturbing. Those three teams had a combined record of 13-31-19 with 101 goals allowed heading into the weekend.
Is this it? Have the wheels flown off what looked like a well-oiled machine?
After the Crew swept through group play at the MLS is Back Tournament in
Orlando in late July, Porter talked about developing a winning mindset.
“Good clubs, it doesn’t matter what the trophy is, you put it in the trophy case,” he said. “You’ve got to put things in the trophy case and this club hasn’t done that enough in the last 10 years. We’re mindful of that. We’re humble with that, as well. But, of course, the players, myself, we want to leave a legacy here where we’re putting trophies in the trophy case.”
The Crew was beaten in the knockout round with a trophy on the line in Orlando. But as late as mid-september, it looked like the best candidate to win the Supporters’ Shield. It’s been in a free fall ever since.
Wednesday, after being beaten 1-0 by DC United – which scored its fourth first-half goal in 21 games – Porter wasn’t talking about trophies.
He was talking about how, with a game at Orlando rescheduled for the middle of next week, he had to rethink his player rotation. He was talking about how important it was to manage the minutes of players coming back from injuries – especially star midfielders Lucas Zelarayan and Darlington Nagbe, whose absences have been felt deeply. He was talking about how he was readying his best XI for the last three games of regular season.
“This game was always going to set up the Philly game,” he said.
And now, here it is.
Porter has been consistent about his team’s No. 1 goal: To play for an MLS Cup. And it’s right there in front of them. All they have to do is clean up their defense, find a way to score more than one goal and, suddenly, play with a sense of urgency.
Crew fans have seen little or none of these things as their team has gone through the motions over the past six weeks. Granted, there were key injuries withstood over a compressed schedule amid a pandemic. OK. But where was the fight?
Philly is here. ABC has set up the spotlight. What will it show?
marace@dispatch.com