After Columbus beat LAFC to win the Main League Soccer Cup on Saturday, the Crew’s Romanian winger Alexandru Matan summed up the sport greatest.
“The coach, he deserves all of the credit score,” he stated, per MLSsoccer.com. “You might want to have balls, sorry for my language, to play this kind of soccer.”
The coach is Frenchman Wilfried Nancy, who led Columbus — which completed eighth within the MLS Jap Convention in 2022 — to a title in his first season with the workforce. It was Nancy’s first MLS Cup after three seasons as a coach within the league — two with underrated CF Montréal.
Nancy’s type is exclusive, and never simply in MLS. His groups would stand alone in any league internationally for his or her urge for food and verve. Nancy’s Crew performs daring, aggressive, possession-based soccer. It is a tactical alternative that goes sideways rapidly when performed with out full dedication. Nancy’s breakthrough this season was studying the right way to make that dedication constant.
In Saturday’s 2-1 win, the Crew’s second objective encapsulated Nancy’s type completely. It got here mere minutes after the Crew scored its first objective, and that issues — the moments after a objective are usually the least targeted and most harmful durations for the goal-scoring workforce. Most coaches encourage their groups to drop off and keep cool to keep away from conceding a objective. That is not Nancy’s technique.
As a substitute, he encourages his workforce to maintain attacking.
Within the lead-up to the successful objective, Columbus midfielder Darlington Nagbe handed to defender Malte Amundsen deep within the Crew’s facet of the pitch. Most gamers in Amundsen’s place would cross again to the goalie in that state of affairs, however Amundsen, shouted on by Nancy, did the other. He noticed winger Yaw Yeboah making a run down the left flank, and he fired a cross-field cross on to his ft. Yeboah danced across the LAFC protection and scored.
Nancy’s high-risk, high-reward techniques are incredible for MLS. They’re thrilling for Crew followers, who love seeing their workforce assault with such ardour, and much more thrilling for neutrals, who’re drawn in by Nancy’s blitzing method.
Nancy’s MLS Cup success might — and will — push MLS towards energetic, wholehearted play at a vital second within the league’s progress. With 30 groups set to compete in 2024 and extra home and worldwide eyes on the league than ever, Nancy’s type is strictly what’s going to preserve gamers and followers hooked on MLS for years.
Nancy’s success, nevertheless, is not simply good for MLS from a tactical standpoint. It is incredible from a variety standpoint, too. He is the primary Black head coach to elevate the MLS Cup, and he absolutely will not be the final.
On this wild interval of progress for the league, Nancy and the Crew encapsulate a lot of what makes MLS nice. Soccer followers are fortunate to have them.
