Why Columbus Crew coach Wilfried Nancy would rather have most regular-season wins than MLS Cup
With two games left in the regular season against Atlanta United FC and CF Montreal, Wilfried Nancy and the Crew want to secure home-field advantage for the 2023 MLS Cup playoffs.
But Nancy made it clear that an MLS Cup is not at the top of his wish list as the coach of the Crew.
“I don’t know what you are going to think about this, but the Supporters’ Shield is more important for me,” Nancy said. “The Supporters’ Shield, it’s 34 games and you have to be consistent. Playoff games, for me, this is like the Champions League. This is not the best team that’s going to win because there is a lot of things that we cannot control.”
The Supporters’ Shield is given to the MLS team with the best regular-season record. The Crew have secured the Supporters’ Shield three times: 2004, 2008, when they also won the MLS Cup, and 2009.
The Crew are one of four teams to have won the Supporters' Shield at least three times, along with the LA Galaxy and D.C. United, which each have four, and the New York Red Bulls.
For Nancy, the Supporters' Shield represents consistency and a mentality he wants the Crew to play with constantly — a habit of seeing each training session and game as a “do-or-die” playoff moment so that when the tournament officially comes, it’s nothing new.
However, Nancy admits that the MLS Cup playoff tournament is not the best stage to show off the consistency he wants.
“This is only maybe six games or five games to go into the end,” Nancy said of the MLS Cup playoffs. “Thirty four games? This is not the same.”
In 2004, the Crew lost in the conference semifinals to the New England Revolution before they ended the 2009 season in the conference semifinals again against Real Salt Lake.
When the Crew won the MLS Cup in 2020, they finished with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference.
In 2023, FC Cincinnati secured the Supporters’ Shield — the club’s first major trophy — which it celebrated after their loss to the Red Bulls Wednesday.
Having already secured a playoff position, the Crew sit in fifth place in the Supporters’ Shield standings, 12 points behind FC Cincinnati.
Nancy knows the MLS Cup is important, reiterating the sentiment multiple times. But his order of importance is just "the way I see it."
Wilfried Nancy prepares for Atlanta United: 'The ego for them is going to be high'
Nancy and the Crew are facing an Atlanta United team Saturday with a different “energy.”
It’s an energy the Crew didn’t get to see in their first meeting against Atlanta, beating them 6-1 at home March 25 with many players absent on international leave such as starting striker Giorgos Giakoumakis, midfielder Thago Almada and defender Miles Robinson.
The Crew were also missing Cucho Hernandez, who was out due to injury, Milos Degenek, Lucas Zelarayan and Eloy Room.
Nancy’s mindset remains similar to the mindset he had before the Crew’s 2-1 win against the Revolution Wednesday: he can’t take anything from their first meeting.
“It’s going to be a new team,” Nancy said. “This is a team, they had a good run… It’s a really good team, really good players, really great coaches also. The idea is I’m going to have one day to figure out who I’m going to put on the pitch, but try to analyze the Atlanta team because it’s not the same team and put a good profile to compete.”
Alex Matan remembers that the Crew played “a great game” against Atlanta in March, but that Saturday will be a “totally different game” at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
With the added pressure of playing away from Lower.com Field, Nancy recognizes possible added significance and motivation for Atlanta heading into this meeting with the Crew.
“The ego for them is going to be high because the first game was a good game for us,” Nancy said. “I don’t know if they are going to want revenge or not, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be the case. I love it because it’s going to be a good challenge and we’re going to compete and see how everything is going to be.”
The Crew will kick off against Atlanta United at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Wilfried Nancy would rather Crew win Supporters' Shield than MLS Cup
