Your 2023 MLS Cup Winner
Image Credit: Tareq Ismail
Your 2023 MLS Cup Champions: the Columbus Crew.
The Columbus Crew defeated Los Angeles FC (LAFC) 2-1 on a rainy Saturday evening at Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio.
The home team took a commanding 2-0 lead in the first half, thanks to goals by Cucho Hernández from the penalty spot and Yaw Yeboah, who slotted the ball past LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau following a world-class pass by Crew defender Malte Amundsen. Cucho also earned the 2023 MLS Cup MVP.
2023 MLS Golden Boot winner Dénis Bouanga made things interesting in the second half by reducing the deficit to one goal. However, his 37th goal of the season in all competitions proved to be insufficient for the Black and Gold, who failed to repeat as MLS Cup winners and lost a second final in 2023.
A Deeper Look
While LAFC picked up where they left off last season — winning the MLS Supporters’ Shield and the MLS Cup — it is worth noting Columbus’s rise to become part of MLS’s best. Only five years ago, the Crew was on the verge of leaving Columbus for Austin. The famous #savethecrew campaign spanning across all MLS fanbases proved to be effective, with the Crew not only staying, but also promised to get a new state-of-the-art venue in 2021: Lower.com Field.
In 2020 — marred by the Covid-19 pandemic — Columbus completed a strong campaign, led by stars a stellar defence and goalkeeping that complimented the attacking prowess comprising Darlington Nagbe, Lucas Zelarayán and Gyasi Zardes.
With only one home loss in all competitions — a 2-1 loss against then-Montréal Impact — the Crew cruised to the MLS Cup Final, where the club defeated then-defending champions Seattle Sounders by a decisive 3-0 score. Zelarayán’s brace earned him the MLS Cup Final MVP. The 2020 MLS Cup Final win was the perfect way to cap a turbulent season amid the pandemic and the prospect threats of the city losing its club. In addition, it was the Crew‘s final match at Columbus Crew Stadium before heading to Lower.com Field.
Despite failing to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2021 and 2022, the Crew saw its reserve league team win the inaugural 2022 MLS NextPro championship in which the roster included current starting goalkeeper Patrick Schulte and Canadians Mo Farsi and Jacen Russell-Rowe, who finished the season as the league’s scoring leader with 21 goals.
At the end of last year, Columbus fired 2020 MLS Cup champion head coach Caleb Porter and acquired head coach Wilfried Nancy — and the majority of his staff, including assistant coach Kwame Ampadu — from CF Montréal. Nancy led Montréal to a historic season with 65 points that included a club-best 20 wins. His acquisition — along with mid-season acquisitions of defender Rudy Camacho and forward Diego Rossi, Alexandru Matan in 2021 and Yeboah and Cucho a year earlier — allowed the Crew to re-tool and develop a new foundation capable of re-propelling the club to the pinnacle of North American soccer.
Rossi — LAFC’s first-ever goal scorer in 2018 — arrived to replace Zelarayán, who left for Saudi Arabia. Rossi’s arrival and rapid integration is a perfect example of Nancy’s effectiveness in tweaking offensive tactics to better feed the elusive Cucho. Rossi’s versatility also allowed the Crew to be more creative in the attack and let midfielders Matan and Aidan Morris better integrate themselves into the attack plays. It was ultimately the forwards comprising the aforementioned players and super-sub Christian Ramirez that overwhelmed many of the league’s best clubs on the road to the title.
Bottom Line
Saturday’s win meant a second MLS Cup in four years — three in total — and a third such title for Crew general manager Tim Bezbatchenko, who previously won with the Crew in 2020 and with Toronto FC in 2017. He was the mastermind behind the assemblage of a powerful TFC squad and the re-tooling of the Crew on both instances leading to MLS’s most esteemed prize. As mentioned in the MLS Cup Final preview, Crew midfielder Darlington Nagbe successfully became the ninth player in MLS history to win four MLS cups and did so with three different clubs (Portland 2015; Atlanta 2018; and Columbus 2020 and 2022).
The final also marked the end of LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo’s perfect playoff record, which ended at seven wins. The 2022 MLS Coach of the Year and MLS Cup winner failed to repeat the same success, which would have been an incredible feat considering the losses of Gareth Bale, top-scorer Christian Arango, Arango's partner-in-crime Kwadwo Opoku and Ecuadorian international José Cifuentes.
With the season at an end, fans can think of the five following questions:
Can Wilfried Nancy and the Crew repeat as MLS Cup winners or win the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2024?
Can Dénis Bouanga translate this year’s scoring success into the next season?
Will Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini retire or return to LAFC?
Which big name players will LAFC seek to sign in the off-season or by next summer?
What would have been the current status for both CF Montréal and Toronto FC if Bezbatchenko and Nancy had remained with their respective clubs?
