Every team has goals for a season. Often times the No. 1 goal is to win a championship. If a team doesn’t achieve its goal, there is an overriding sense of “next year.” That has been the case recently for the Columbus Crew SC.
A playoff berth in head coach Gregg Berhalter’s first season with the club (2014) led to an MLS Cup appearance in the next. After a down year, the team made it back to the Eastern Conference finals last year. They failed to lift the cup, but there is always next year.
Except there’s not.
The Crew will face a challenge unlike any other team in MLS this season. If they fail to win the MLS Cup, there might not be another chance in Columbus.
Not next year. Not ever.
The elephant in the room surrounding Crew SC’s media day was the potential relocation of the team to Austin, Texas. Stories about the move have dominated headlines since the end of last season.
“We will be faced with challenges this year, there is no question, but all of that is out of our control. All we can do as a group, all we can do as a team, is perform well on the field. And that’s our focus,” Berhalter said.
All the players on the team repeated that sentiment.
“We haven’t struggled significantly to box it out or block it. We have a wonderful communications department, a coaching staff that has kept us on the right track as players,” team captain Wil Trapp said, “for me being a local guy, or a guy that’s from a different country, it’s all about what we can do on the field.”
Goalkeeper Zack Steffen said, “We’re professionals. That’s our job. Our job isn’t to decide whether we’re staying or going.”
Their focus is firmly on the field and on winning. When it comes to that, they feel confident and offended, according to veteran defender Josh Williams.
“Based on some of the preseason rankings, I feel like we’re kind of underdogs this year,” Williams said, “we had all those rankings posted in our locker room. That’s something that drives us right there. We just feel like the lack of respect we get throughout the league no matter how well we do the season prior, or how well we do up to that point, I feel like there is always a lack of respect…our belief is that we’re the best team in the league.
Crew SC gained some early respect, beating reigning champ Toronto FC 2-0 at BMO Field. TFC lost one home game last season. Still, the feeling of disrespect remains — and it isn’t something new.
“The feel[ing] around the league — I don’t know if it’s a small-market thing or what it is — but for some reason there is a lack of respect, there is that underdog feel ever since I’ve gotten here,” Williams said.
In 2018 more than ever Crew SC players and fans are on the same mission, albeit for different reasons: Prove the rankings wrong, prove the other teams wrong and prove the league wrong.