Houston, Texas - MLS cup defending champions, Columbus Crew is one step away from achieving a historic feat with a 3-1 away win over Monterrey to zoom into the finals of concacaf champions cup finals where they will square up against another LigaMX giants, Pachuca FC.
Wilfried Nancy’s intricate tactics and game model necessitate such an epic win for the Crew.
But in the aftermath of his Columbus Crew’s breathtaking 3-1 away win over mighty Monterrey to triumph in their Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal series 5-2 on aggregate, he gathered his group on the pitch at Estadio BBVA and asked them to say nothing at all.
“When we finished the game,” Nancy explained to reporters postgame, “We did a kind of huddle, you know? And I wanted them to say nothing for three or four seconds, and just realize what they’ve done.
“For me, this is about trying to be limitless, and this value, for me this is so important, because I think that what we did today is going to be good also for their life as a human being, knowing that, why are we going to put limits on what we do? Try to achieve something.”
Columbus did exactly that on Wednesday night, standing toe to toe with an all-time giant of Concacaf play and inflicting Rayados’ first-ever series loss to an MLS side. And they did so in their now-customary style, controlling the run of play after weathering an early gut punch in the form of an Yevhen Cheberko own goal instigated by a Maxi Meza chip over Patrick Schulte that clanged off the crossbar and hit Cheberko before bouncing into the net.
Setbacks like that have historically been the prelude to MLS misery in Concacaf action on Mexican soil, blood in the water that triggers wave after wave of suffocating pressure, and eventually floods of goals, from Liga MX adversaries keen to extend their league’s tradition of superiority over the upstarts to the north.
Not this time.
Embracing the moment
Key goals from Aidan Morris and Diego Rossi before substitute Jacen Russell-Rowe’s late icing on the cake was what the Crew need to condemn the Rayados to a defeat that will be etched in their franchise history.
The Crew who lock horns with Pachuca in the CCC final, which will take place June 1 at Estadio Hidalgo (9:15 pm ET) – shifted from its original date of June 2 due to Mexican elections taking place that day.
The Crew, who proudly consider themselves MLS’s first team, will now aim to become just the second MLS team in the modern era to hoist Concacaf’s highest club honor.
By Sam Mbonu
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