Post-match: Crewsgiving 2026: Rydström or Die! - Crew @ Portland - Match 1 - 2/21/26 10:30 PM

Just realized the opener is at 10:30 ugh...

 

Feeling like a tie in this one. Overall I feel pretty decent about that offseason. There’s a chance this coaching staff is a home run. And the floor seems decently high as well, I just don’t see a realistic scenario where this roster is non competitive and out of the playoffs. A trophy contender though? Seems a bridge too far with all the questions around the defense and one specific DP, in addition to how dominant Miami will likely be. Top 4 in the east, home field advantage, and a playoff run of some kind seem attainable.

 

And hey. Are your sources reliable on that Rydström quote big dog @chr1st ?

 

That's 7:30 P.M. on the left coast.

 

Anyone have a good idea on Portlands roster changes since last year so we know what to expect???

 

Wow. Eight days until the season kicks off and I could not be any less pumped. Kudos to the social media team at the Columbus Crew and MLS as a whole

 

I'm actually much more excited about this season than I was going into 2025. Cucho's departure coupled with no messaging coming from the club that implied they were in a hurry to replace him had me in "low expectations mode" for last year. We'd seen the club already slide dramatically during the last half of '24, after Morris and Bez departed and a too-small roster wore down during those final months of the season. It seemed a year ago we were likely going to witness a further decline in '25, and that's pretty much what happened.

This year... well, there are a lot of unknowns. But I'm sincerely excited to see what Abou Ali can do over a full-season, how well Rydström adjusts to MLS, what his tactics actually look like in real life, and how well our current roster embraces and can pull-off how he wants everyone play. I sure as hell appreciate going into a season with a full roster for change.

 

From everything ive read about rydstrom and his plan for this year, he should be the perfect change/tweak that this team needed. Now if the backline is a back 4 consisting of 4 players weve come accustomed to at CB, ex. Malte at LB, I may be a little less excited.

 

I have no idea what to expect. That is interesting at least.

 

I was going to chide you for not leading with Husker Du, but I double checked and thats Norwegian.

Great band though.

 

Isn't Husker Du from Minnesota?

I'm pretty sure I have a vinyl album of theirs from my misspent college years. I'd originally thought they were from Wisconsin, but realized I'd gotten them confused with Couch Flambeau. Honest mistake.

 

Their purge of any relevant writers and/or content creators is truly baffling.

 

Well put. More questions I’m curious about, specifically related to the tactics/formation:

-Back 4? Seems like that might neuter one of the strengths, which is the wingback play. How’s that going to work?

-Zawadski back to midfield? Has he developed some better skills on the ball? He could pass well out of the back, but can he carry it forward in and out of traffic? Central midfield in general is a big question. I assume Chambost remains a starter but should I? Bangoura was the big offseason acquisition, is he ready to go and start? I’m assuming patience is required, that’s usually how these things go with overseas guys at that price point.

-Is Gazdag even a starter and/or are we waiting to deal this dude closer to the roster freeze once teams get more desperate and see what they have? I remain just kind of fascinated by this guys whole deal. He was so clearly snake bit, and I want to pull for him to come out of it, but if he’s not in this teams future plans let’s dump the dude and move on and get some production. Obviously that’s a huge roster spot that is being taken up (wasted?) and of all the questions getting this one answered probably has the biggest effect on the teams ceiling. You have to maximize the use of your DP spots. Teams that don’t tend to not go very far. Which leads to my last question

-Abou Ali? Is he that dude? I think he might be that dude. Which would be very fun to watch, and raises this teams ceiling, provided of course as mentioned one of the other DP slots is sorted out.

That’s a lot of things needing answered. Im excited and ready to start seeing what’s going on.

 

I believe you are correct. Its a just the Norwegian terms for something or other.

 

2026 Portland Preseason: all from Portland Timbers X account
Fri Jan 23 - closed door vs LA Galaxy (lost 1-0)
Wed Jan 28 - closed door vs LAFC (tie 2-2)
Wed Feb 4 - closed door vs St Louis (tie0-0)
Sat Feb 7 - Coachella Valley Invitational vs DC United (tie 0-0)
Wed Feb 11 Coachella vs SJ (lost 3-2)
Sat Feb 14 Coachella vs Chicago

 

I picked lose by two. I don't think the Crew are terrible or multiple goals worse than Portland on a normal day. It's just a confluence of bad timing and uncertainty.

Nancy started a bunch of players who were either new starters or playing different positions in a new system in his debut and got smoked 4-1 by Philly. By all accounts, the Crew are switching to a back four and Zawadzki is likely not one of the four. It's a less jarring change than Nancyball was to Porterball, but it will still take some time for the team to adapt to Rydström and his approach.

The Crew have also never been able to solve Providence Park. Even though this Timbers team on paper isn't near as good as that 2023 Philly team Nancy debuted against, it's a long trip to a more difficult away venue.

I'm not sold on Zawadzki in the midfield or Abou Ali as a dynamo forward (if he's even healthy enough to play). I don't expect Camacho is going to return to form starting at CB after basically taking a year off from soccer. Farsi is day-to-day, and until I see otherwise I'll interpret that as him likely not starting or not playing. Bangoura is likely a 20-30 minute sub at best. Just too many question marks or "I'll believe it when I see it" with presumed starters.

If this game were a month from now, I'd be more optimistic. As it stands, the Crew didn't do nearly enough in the off-season to make me confident they'll be ready to go. Hopefully it won't be too ugly.

 

It was also a popular kids game, which is where the band got the name.

 

I don't engage in acts of irrational optimism very frequently, but see week one as the ideal time. So I'm going with a win by 2 or more goals. Why the hell not, I say.

 

Lose by 2 for tradition's sake. But I legit have zero idea how this game is going to go, but my natural pessimism says we're going to lose as we didn't do hardly enough in the off-season to get better.

 

It's shocking how much the league has ********ed up this off season. Getting rid of all its good writers/podcasters, pawning off fantasy, moving to a winter schedule.


PERFECT way to ruin the momentum of a WC at home.

 

These short off-seasons just sort of leave you feeling like we just stopped. The holidays really fill up the intervening time pretty well, and, to be fair, we've had some turbulence going on in the country... I can only imagine how it must feel to Loons fans.

 

Anyone want to take a crack at what our starting XI will be? We know Farsi won’t be fit, but has there been any reporting about Camacho? He played at the end of last season, so I assume he’s fit. If so, my guess is he starts at CB. Anyway, I’ll venture a guess later in the week.

 

You can look at it that way, sure.

But the fact is that MLS, Apple, local news outlets, even ones as big as the WaPo, have concluded that fans aren't coming to them for info anymore. Apple has been paring down the in-studio stuff, because people just don't care about anything but their team. You put those shows on and then scroll your phone until they get to the 3 minutes you're interested in.

Sportswriters - even the few good ones - and talking heads aren't moving the needle anymore.