Home playoff game on line in Crew’s season finale
Crew vs. Atlanta United
When: 3:30 p.m. Sunday
TV: Sportstime Ohio
Radio: WBNS-FM (97.1)
It’s not the position the Crew expected to be in after spending more than half the season atop the Major League Soccer standings.
But the task at hand is securing a home game in the MLS playoffs, and the Crew can do that on Sunday against Atlanta United, a team looking to sneak into the postseason.
“I always talk about perspective. It’s so important in a season,” Crew coach Caleb Porter said Saturday. “You certainly have the near perspective, but then you have to have the big-picture perspective, always.”
To finish among the top four teams in
the Eastern Conference, the Crew (116-5, 38 points) needs a win at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Mapfre Stadium against Atlanta (6-12-4, 22 points), which is one point behind the final playoff spot. Columbus can also clinch the fourth spot if New York City FC loses or draws against Chicago.
The Crew knows its play has been underwhelming over the past six weeks. After leading in the Supporters’ Shield standings by five points through 13 games, the Crew has posted a 2-5-2 record and has slipped to fourth in the East; the top four in the standings will host a playoff game.
Columbus didn’t anticipate being in this spot at the end of September, but a home record of 8-1 and the chance to return to Mapfre in two weeks should provide enough confidence and motivation for the Crew to feel good again entering the single-elimination playoffs.
“We’ll be up for it,” midfielder Darlington Nagbe said. “We’ve been good at home, we’ve been getting points at home and I expect the same tomorrow.”
Nagbe and midfielder Lucas Zelarayan, the Crew’s two most important players in the attack, have yet to make a major impact on the four games they have played since returning to the team from their injuries.
Nagbe said it has been like going through the preseason again after missing eight games with a meniscus injury. Zelarayan is in good shape physically, he said, though it’s unknown how much either player will factor into Sunday’s match after each played 159 minutes in the Crew’s past games with just two days in between.
With a home game Sunday and a win-or-go-home scenario in the playoffs, Zelarayan said it’s important the Crew shows that it’s one of the best teams in the league.
“Games like that are easy to get motivated for because it’s 90 minutes where we have to concentrate and we have to compete at the highest level,” he said through a translator. “We have to commit as few mistakes as possible.”
Atlanta has one win in its past seven games, but Porter said the Five Stripes remain a dangerous club with talented players including midfielders Ezequiel Barco, Jurgen Damm and Marcelino Moreno.
Before the season, the Crew would have welcomed news that it would play for a spot in the top four in its regularseason finale. But even though the team’s average of 1.73 points per game is on pace to be the third-best in team history, the Crew also recognizes that records don’t matter if there’s not a trophy in the case.
“I think our group understands the last game wasn’t good enough,” Porter said of a 2-1 loss at Orlando on Wednesday. “They understand big picture we’ve had a very good season but they also understand the next game and three points — and more important than anything, the games in the playoffs — are going to determine the legacy that 2020 is.” jmyers@dispatch.com
@_ jcmyers