Formation of Crew 2 is ‘no doubt a milestone’
Crew general manager Tim Bezbatchenko and assistant GM Corey Wray see the establishment of Crew 2 — the Crew’s new development team, which serves as a bridge between the Crew Academy and MLS — as a necessary to the health of the club.
“This is no doubt a milestone,” said Bezbatchenko.
Crew 2 is one of 21 teams that will play in the inaugural season of MLS Next Pro. Only one of those teams is independent of an MLS club. Eight more Mls-affiliated second teams will join the league in 2023.
There are a few immediate benefits to the Crew.
First, young players who the club would previously have sent off on loan to a United Soccer League club can now stay in-market.
There are no limitations on how many times a player can move from Crew to Crew 2 whereas there are such limits on USL players.
Second, the Crew can use Crew 2 to give playing time to players recovering from injuries, similar to how Major League Baseball players make rehab starts in the minors.
Above all, now there is a pipeline in place for a player to go from the Crew Academy to Crew 2 and then to MLS. Academy players can play for Crew 2 with a type of amateur agreement before signing with a college program. Players who are part of a college team can still be signed to Crew 2, but that would end their college eligibility.
“We now have meaningful minutes in a competitive environment (to offer),” Wray said. “We now have a way to catch kids who maybe don’t want to go to college or be a part of that pathway, to give them more games and minutes.“
Wray said the player pool for Crew 2 will change over time. Right now, the majority of the roster will be 19- to 23year-olds who will be signed directly to the team with a smattering of Academy players without contracts and older players with experience.
“I think that blend is something we’re refining,” said Wray.
Where the Crew can get creative is in using Crew 2 to bring aboard young international players the club believes can eventually succeed in MLS. With Crew 2, those players can assimilate to life in a new country while developing until they’re ready to perform in a league in which winning matters more. Wray said the pitch is they’ll have an opportunity to participate in a growing league and take advantage of the excellent facilities the Crew have.
“I think a lot of the conversations have been very positive,” he said. “In fact, a lot of people are reaching out directly versus me having to go out because they believe in the growth and the success that MLS has had over the last 20-plus years now.”
Having a second team also changes scouting. With a robust development program in place, the Crew can focus on signing top-end talent rather than keeping players on the roster for their upside.
It’ll take time for Crew 2 to become a major factor in roster building, but Bezbatchenko said he can envision a day when at least 10 of 30 players on the Crew come from the Crew Academy.
“(MLS) has aspired to be a league that’s amongst the best in the world,” Bezbatchenko said. “We can’t do that unless most of the teams, if not all the teams, have a proper development system.” jmyers@dispatch.com @_jcmyers