Are there Next Pro playoffs? When do they start? For that matter, what was the score of yesterday's game? Neither the MLS nor Crew webpages had any info about it earlier today.
4-1 Capys The 1 was scored by Owen Goal courtesy of JRR. Follow Crew 2 on Insta/Twitter. They put out video highlights and are pretty good during games with updates.
MLS Next Pro and Crew 2 have their own websites, how cool is that? https://www.mlsnextpro.com/, https://www.columbuscrew.com/crew2/ And the recap, here: https://www.mlsnextpro.com/news/cre...evolution-ii-in-mls-next-pro-game-of-the-week
This is exactly what its about. Theres no justifiable reason for the front office to put any effort behind Crew 2 other than on the field / the sporting side of things. If i lived in Columbus, I would absolutely be one of the people who bought the 60 dollar, Crew 2 season ticket if thats a thing.....I would go to probably every Crew 2 game that didnt interfere with other plans of mine....and would just go to a handful of first team games. If a diehard fan like me could be like that, I guarantee theres lots of others who would jump ship to Crew 2, specifically the casual fans that just want to be outside somewhere doing something fun with other people or families with little kids that like soccer but arent particularly invested in what level of soccer they watch. Im sure theres a not large, but still considerable amount of people who loved their fun and affordable nights at Crew/Mapfre Stadium and dont really put a premium on the more glamorous and pricey experience of Lower.com Field. I feel like its a very real risk. Its no sweat off the FOs back to throw the committed fans a bone and make attending the games a possibility (they wouldnt even have to actually do that) but theres no reason for them to go out of their way to encourage the growth of the game day experience or to build a culture around the 2nd team. It should honestly be taken the same as being allowed to attend a training session. Should you have merchandise and food options, etc at an open training session? I doubt it. Im actually a fan of everything about Crew 2 including some of the rather silly culture around it just because its light hearted and doesnt actually matter but its fun. Driving 2.5 hours to attend a Crew 2 game really isnt worth my time or money so I havent had the chance to attend a game yet, but hopefully one of these days ill do a whole weekend in Columbus when I attend a regular game (I do put a premium on the LDC experience by the way, im am a snob....just a guy with champagne taste on a beer budget), and can get out to HCS again to see Crew 2. With all of that said, even though I like everything about Crew 2....im still not an advocate of the organization itself unnecessarily promoting it or boosting it in any way other than development of players.
Does anyone know the average age of “2” teams? I think Crew 2 is one of the older teams which might be one factor to our winning.
Gracias. You'd think if they go to the trouble to give them a website, they'd put links to it on the main MLS or Crew pages. I went to MLSsoccer.com and searched under "Next". It produced some stories about the academy tournament held in June but no link to the sites above.
There are links, at least in the browser version of the MLS site I'm seeing. Click on the main MLS menu ellipsis (next to the Clubs link) and the drop-down menu reads: Competitions Rosters Gaming MLS NEXT MLS NEXT Pro
Those youth teams, for one. If the coach can fundraise $300-$400 or whatever for tickets for the team and their parents for Crew 2, all of a sudden, that's a very viable option. Sure, they can walk up and buy tickets at the gate, but it's probably not in the FO's best interest to advertise that too much. In terms of the atmosphere, it definitely reminds me of a high school JV game or some of the smaller OSU sports. You get the hardcores and the final score doesn't really matter as much. Sure, it's nice that Crew 2 seems to be steamrolling just about everyone they play, but it's way more "fun and games" than the full team is.
I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would spend money more than 1-2 times a year to go to a Crew 2 match unless they're one of Nordecke faithful who are making a party out of it. It's JV soccer with zero amenities, hardly any atmosphere, one concession stand, and one bathroom. You can barely even tailgate since the parking lot only opens 60 minutes before kickoff and they don't allow grills. I just don't get it.
From a first-half goal explosion to Coleman Gannon joining the party, the @ColumbusCrew2 rolled their way to three points! Join us as we relive the top moments from this past this weekend’s Game of the Week! 🎥 pic.twitter.com/6bi0GWea7h— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) July 26, 2022
Thanks. That's pretty poor web design if you have to click through another link to find a link for the Next Pro teams. It's even worse that a search doesn't find them. The newest story found using search term "Next" is more than a month old.
I write about the Guardians farm system. I have half-season tickets for a G League team and an AHL team. I have horror stories about low low low minor league gameday experiences that make Crew 2 feel like the Super Bowl. In other words: I'm addicted to sports, including (especially?) the minor leagues.
No problem. I will point out that some of those averages are going to be a bit off. Some of the teams are only listed as having 9-15 players on roster, which can't be right. We certainly do have a team that's on the older end of the league though. Hopefully that starts to change as we continue to rebuild our academy program.
It also doesn't account for senior side players who routinely appear in NEXT Pro games. I think it was @David Kerr who also said that he thought our NEXT Pro roster trended older now - which has something to do with Crew 2 success on the pitch - but that the age/experience levels should come down as we build out our academy.
It’s all correct, teams on that list with very few players likely are playing tons of academy players on amateur deals and not MLSNP contracts. Players in this list are only those on official MLSNP contracts. Players like Stas Lapkes, Quinton Elliot, Caleb Borneo, and Jack Lindimore wouldn’t count in this group. Same goes for first team players as well unless there’s an official announced loan down to the second team
I went to four Cleveland Charge G-League games this past season. (I guess I was not the only Crew fan attending Charge games!). The experience there was pretty basic. No fancy intros, of course no videoboard (other than the G-League Next game during All Star Weekend, where the NBA brought in one). They did have some on court fan contests during breaks. But it was a very, very scaled down version of a regular NBA game. Similar to what the Crew 2 experience was IMHO.