🏆 Tuzos-Crew: An unlikely, but not accidental, Concacaf Champions Cup final
Thoughts on the semifinals as the Crew kept their nerve and Pachuca finished a quick turnaround.
Columbus Crew should’ve been panicking. They should’ve shrunk. Like an episode of Scooby Doo, we’ve all seen this arc before. A team might look big and scary, but at the end, the Liga MX powerhouse pulls off the mask. Yep, it was Ol’ Man MLS Choker all along.
Except the Crew didn’t follow the script. When Monterrey went up on a Columbus own goal in the 11th minute, they kept doing exactly what they had been doing before. Taking their time, building from the back, staying confident that opportunities would come.
One did just before the halftime break, giving the Crew a lead in the series that they’d never give back, moving to the Concacaf Champions Cup final with a 3-1 win Wednesday and a 5-2 aggregate series victory.
All the mystique about playing in Mexico, all the memories of other teams playing their second legs in vaunted venues like the Volcan and the BBVA. It just never seemed to hit them.
The system was too well drilled. The mind never wandered to thoughts of failure, of trailing in a harsh atmosphere. There was no room for that. The brain needed to be focused on pulling off the system.
“The fans of Monterrey pushed a lot. It was amazing. Before we started the game, the atmosphere was really powerful,” Crew manager Wilfried Nancy said after the match. “We play for that, and I think my players used this situation to find a way to come from behind and fight.
“We didn’t play our best game with the ball I’d say, but we played our best game in terms of resilience, the way we believe.”
That was on display as the voice of the crowd rose just after the Crew’s second goal. The smelled blood as Columbus poked the ball around in its own penalty area. As the forwards pressed, the Crew defenders and goalkeeper Patrick Schulte continued to work it, eventually found a way to get the ball out of the box to the right and broke the press without breaking a sweat.
It was the live embodiment of: “Well, I'd like to see the ol Columbus Crew wriggle their way out of THIS jam!
*Crew wriggle their way out of the jam easily*
Ah! Well, Nevertheless”
The win was the second time this tournament the Crew went into Nuevo Leon, into one of the most difficult places to play in the Americas, and kept their nerve.
The first trip saw them win a penalty shootout against Tigres after a pair of 1-1 draws meant the quarterfinal series would be decided by kicks from the spot.
This time, it was the strategy of “Do NOT surrender the series lead” going up in smoke after only 11 minutes. Yet, by the half the Crew were back in control of the series. Four minutes into the second half, they were basically through, with Diego Rossi capping off a shifty move to give the MLS side an advantage that meant Rayados needed three goals in the rest of the half.
Instead, the Crew found one more, an 89th minute roller from Jacob Russell-Rowe that kicked off the celebrations.