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Wilfried Nancy on 2024 Columbus Crew: 'For me, it was the best season.' What's next?
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- Wilfried Nancy on 2024 Columbus Crew: 'For me, it was the best season.' What's next?
Amid the leafy brain of Crew coach Wilfried Nancy is a thick branch of his thinking that says winning is not the most important thing. He believes in the process, in personal growth for him, his players and the writ-large organization. Victory is in the constant improvement of the collective.
But losing still cuts like a hatchet.
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"To be honest with you, when we lost against New York, I did not watch any kind of MLS game," Nancy said Tuesday, when the Crew trotted out a few of their personnel before flying to Chula Vista, California, just south of San Diego , where they will open training camp.
Nancy couldn't watch the rest of the playoffs after his team was upset by the New York Red Bulls in the first round of the tournament, and the prospect of an MLS Cup repeat was dashed. He did some traveling with his family, tried to be a better husband and father. Improvement of another collective.
"I have to accept that we lost," Nancy said, "but it was difficult."
Crew midfielder Darlington Nagbe and his teammates fell to the New York Red Bulls to end the 2024 season in the first round of the MLS playoffs.
In 2023, the first year of Nancy's tenure, the Crew took off at midsummer and ran away with the MLS Cup in the fall . The players grew into Nancy's demanding, detailed, attacking system. They led the league in possession (57.7%) and for the first time in franchise history led the league in goals (67). They put a third star above their logo.
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"The first step was to have an introduction about the way we want to play," Nancy said.
That was Year One.
In Year Two, Nancy said, "The second step … was to add more freedom, autonomy, with the players and also the way I lead. Because, yes, I am the boss, apparently, but for me, I am more a technical leader. For me, the finishing of that is to bring a clear platform, to bring a clear environment for people to express themselves."
In 2024, the Crew set club records for victories (19), points (66) and, as a mark of their growth, goal differential (plus-32). They continued to hoard possession and attacked with ferocity, but they also tightened up when they didn't have the ball. Then came New York.
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Nancy was Coach of the Year . Forward Cucho Hernandez finished second, fewer than 5 percentage points behind Lionel Messi , in MVP voting . Steven Moreira was Defender of the Year . Onward.
Under coach Wilfried Nancy, the Crew set club records for victories (19) and points (66) last season.
"The third year is about merging everything and having more flexibility, tactical flexibility, offensively and defensively, and being more unpredictable. Because last year … every game was difficult. Teams, sometimes they pressed us, sometimes they tried to stay low with many players behind the ball. And for me, this is powerful because I learned a lot about how to be better and how to better (communicate) certain things to my players in a better way."
The Crew played 50 games (including three finals) in 2024. It was an education for them. It led captain Darlington Nagbe , midfielder Sean Zawadzki and Nancy to each riff on a similar tune Tuesday:
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Any thought that 50 games is a too great a load was vaporized during the offseason. They want more games this year, in part because they've got a better idea of what it's like to go through that grinder. It's all part of serious trophy hunting. To paraphrase Ernie Banks, "Let's play 55."
Forward Cucho Hernandez and the Crew played 50 games last season and are opening this season with training camp in Chula Vista, California.
Nancy said one of the highlights of last season, for him, was how the Crew bounced back from the CONCACAF Champions Cup final – they played while food poisoned in Pachuca and lost 3-0 on June 1 – and then faced down a terribly compressed portion of their schedule. They went 6-0-1 over 23 days in August ( and won Leagues Cup ) and went 3-2-1 over 22 days in September/early October (and lost Campeones Cup). Playing seven games over three weeks can be brutal, and they did it twice in a relatively short span. And they persevered.
"What I did with my staff was a summary of the season," Nancy said. "It was a really, really, really good season. For me, it was the best season. We didn't win MLS Cup or (CCC). But the way we were able to handle these kinds of games, to have two cycles of seven games in 22, 23 days, the fact that we lose also a few finals, the resilience of my group and also that we've been consistent. For me, this is the best season ever. In the club, for me also, for my staff, and also in MLS, because we want everyone to see that."
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Nancy prizes consistency, which is, he has said, what the Supporters' Shield represents. The Shield, given to the MLS team with the best regular-season record, is always in the back of his leafy brain. It's a branch that seems to be growing.
The Crew landed in Chula Visa Tuesday evening. They will train there for 10 days before returning to Columbus . They'll be training in Palm Beach from Feb. 2-15. Their season opener is at home, against coach Gregg Berhalter's Chicago Fire , in the new Crew stadium Feb. 22.
For more on the Crew, stop by the Soccer Speakeasy for a listen
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Do Wilfried Nancy, Columbus Crew, have eye on MLS Supporters' Shield?
