How Columbus coach stunningly led team to MLS Cup win
After Columbus beat LAFC to win the Major League Soccer Cup on Saturday, the Crew's Romanian winger Alexandru Matan summed up the game best.
"The coach, he deserves all the credit," he said, per MLSsoccer.com. "You need to have balls, sorry for my language, to play this type of football."
The coach is Frenchman Wilfried Nancy, who led Columbus — which finished eighth in the MLS Eastern Conference in 2022 — to a title in his first season with the team. It was Nancy's first MLS Cup after three seasons as a coach in the league — two with underrated CF Montréal.
Nancy's style is unique, and not just in MLS. His teams would stand alone in any league across the world for their appetite and verve. Nancy's Crew plays bold, aggressive, possession-based soccer. It's a tactical choice that goes sideways quickly when played without full commitment. Nancy's breakthrough this season was learning how to make that commitment consistent.
In Saturday's 2-1 win, the Crew's second goal encapsulated Nancy's style perfectly. It came mere minutes after the Crew scored its first goal, and that matters — the moments after a goal tend to be the least focused and most dangerous periods for the goal-scoring team. Most coaches encourage their teams to drop off and stay cool to avoid conceding a goal. That's not Nancy's strategy.
Instead, he encourages his team to keep attacking.
In the lead-up to the winning goal, Columbus midfielder Darlington Nagbe passed to defender Malte Amundsen deep in the Crew's side of the pitch. Most players in Amundsen's position would pass back to the goalie in that situation, but Amundsen, shouted on by Nancy, did the opposite. He spotted winger Yaw Yeboah making a run down the left flank, and he fired a cross-field pass directly to his feet. Yeboah danced around the LAFC defense and scored.
Nancy's high-risk, high-reward tactics are fantastic for MLS. They're exciting for Crew fans, who love seeing their team attack with such passion, and even more exciting for neutrals, who are drawn in by Nancy's blitzing approach.
Nancy's MLS Cup success could — and should — push MLS toward energetic, wholehearted play at a crucial moment in the league's growth. With 30 teams set to compete in 2024 and more domestic and international eyes on the league than ever, Nancy's style is exactly what will keep players and fans hooked on MLS for years.
Nancy's success, however, isn't just good for MLS from a tactical standpoint. It's fantastic from a diversity standpoint, too. He's the first Black head coach to lift the MLS Cup, and he surely won't be the last.
In this wild period of growth for the league, Nancy and the Crew encapsulate so much of what makes MLS great. Soccer fans are lucky to have them.
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