Hes likely referring to the discussion over the Crew winning the Shield that year by basically drawing what seemed like every damn game. It was a depressing season of sister kissing. Andrulis won Coach of the Year and was then fired halfway through the following season. Some people point to the shield and say Greg was a great coach, others point to the talent and the fact that they won it by getting a single point in some ridiculous number of games in a row. Attendance cratered, Andrulus fought with the players, Ch(Elsey) led the famous pink slip campaign and no one was sorry when he was canned. It was the season when Clark Hunt made the only amusing comment he is recorded as ever making when Greg asked him, in the tunnel "Will you still love me if we lose?" and Hunt, without a moments hesitation, said "Yes Greg, I'll still love you. I’ll miss you, but I'll still love you"
You're absolutely spot-on as always. It was a divide of "we won it" vs "we backed in to it". A lot of the teams near the top with 4-6 games left ended up losing/tying games causing the Shield to have our team's name on it. I just can't tell if KCbus asked a legitimate question or was being a bit sarcastic/facetious with his comment, hence my previous reply. He could be saying "there is no debate" or it could be a legit question.
It remains the lowest PPG number for any SS winner. So, certainly, we won it. But it was a down year for MLS overall. No particularly strong teams meant that a PPG number that would have led to also-ran status in all other years was good enough to win the Shield.
No, it was a legit question. Did we finish with the most points? Yes? Then we won the Shield. Period. Debate over. There aren't style points awarded. If you want to "debate" whether or not Andrulis really contributed much or how impressive it was(n't), we can do that forever. But some people want to act like the trophy itself isn't valuable because they don't like the guy coaching the squad. Nobody else in the league did any better than we did, so it's ours. And this idea of "backing into" a championship is always stupid. Did we "back into MLS Cup" in 2020? We didn't win a road game all season, we finished third in the conference and avoided the two top seeds AND going on the road because of upsets. We got lucky in that regard. But we beat everyone we were supposed to beat, so it's ours. Hell, even the "great" 2023 team had opportunities to lose in Orlando to a ten-man team, needed a stunning save from a green Patrick Schulte to keep a 2-0 deficit from becoming a 3-0 deficit before pulling a ridiculous comeback, and had an MLS Cup home match because the Western Conference was weak that year. There were plenty of times where it was on a knife's edge and could have gone the other way, but it's a results business, and we got the results. We won the Shield in 2004. Out.
I'm with you. People who say we backed into it aren't recognizing the team's accomplishments. 2020 was an anomaly of a season in numerous ways, but it's not like we had some weird unfair advantage that nobody else had. It was an anomaly of a season for everybody.
When looking at all permanent Crew head coaches all-time, the worst coach was first year boss Timo Liekoski with 0.62 PPG lol. Henrik Rydstrom is currently second on that list at 1.29 PPG. For reference, Warzycha was 1.42 PPG, Berhalter and Porter were 1.43 PPG, and Nancy was 1.80 PPG.
Not that it probably changes much, but we also should take a moment to remember how the league calculated standings in 1999. A regulation win was 3 points. A shootout win was 1 point. Any loss was 0 points. If games ended in ties after 90 minutes, by my count, we would have had 20 points vs 15. Bad, but not *as* bad.
Not by much. He had five shootout losses. If each of those had been counted as ties, he'd have had five more points. Shootout wins were worth one, so if they'd remained as ties, he'd have had the same. So instead of having 14 points in 22 games, he'd have had 19. He'd have had .86 PPG instead of .63 PPG. So.......... not all that impressive.
Ok, let me throw this at you, Liekoski is the only permanent coach in team history with more losses than wins... until this season. 3 wins and 6 losses for HR. This team is -3 right now on goal difference. Ton of games to go, etc. but just humor me... the team hasn't finished with a negative goal difference since before covid (2019). Even then, they were -1. If the current trend continues for the rest of the sesosn, we'll be something like -8. A Crew team hasn't finished with a GD that low since 2016 (also -8). I only went back to 2010, but this team had the potential to be the worst team in literally 16 years. And even then, the team was half decent in 2008 and 2009, so maybe the worst team in 20 years. Is some of that players? Yes. Is some of that GM? Yes. Is some of that the coach? Yeah. HR better get his ass in gear, he has 4 games (3 MLS, 1 USOC) to prove he deserves to be here post World Cup. Even then, we play both NY teams (so probably two losses) and then Philly and Atlanta again (presumably they have tape now and improve). Even if he wins those games, who cares, those teams are terrible. Unless something crazy happens, I'm already pretty much set on HR needing to leave at the end of May. Don't give this man (and Issa) another window to add more deadwood to this already iffy roster.
I stopped reading right here, because this kind of surprised me. Really? You'd think a team that's been around since 1996 would have more than one. This seems to indicate that despite the amount of hand-wringing this fan base has done during its existence, the club has largely gotten the coaching hires right.
I have done my damn best to forget 2004. In addition to Tony F#cking Sanneh gracing us with his otherworldly soccer skills, a game that sticks in my craw is October 2. Playing Chicago in front of 23k people, with Chicago getting a Red card late in the first half we play bunker ball for the entire match. Cunningham didn't get the memo and put us up not once, but twice. It was the most boring and frustrating 3 goal game I have ever witnessed. It was a full house and the order from Nee was to park 10 men back and pray for a not loss. It represented the entire f#cking season and attitude of the coaching staff. Would rather never live through that again. But, yes, we did win the shield that year because of St. Duncan's heroics.
I unfortunately think im there too. Although, HR's advice on roster building should help raise our xDawg, which we desperately lack. Courtois likes a similar physical profile too. Wonder what courtois thinks on the sideline.
I think we might need to look at Sigi's first 2 years of employment with the Crew for apt comparison. I haven't felt this depressed in watching the Crew since 2006.
He should follow his own advice and play Bangoura more then. He has xDawg on the bench, use it. This leads me to think he looks at Bangoura as nothing more than a dude to bring on at the end to close out a game, as opposed to a guy that helps you get a lead by being a ball-winning machine in midfield from the first whistle. Just another question I have about his decision making.
I think (when I get the time, which I have very little of right now) I wanna do an in depth comparison of all the club's coaches first 12 games. At least the coaches of the DP era, which would probably be more apportionment.
Looks like Sigi was 17-26-19. So 1.13 PPG during those rebuild years. Not saying HR will be the next Sigi but this feels more like the beginning of a rebuild then anytime since 2006 to me.
Completely agree about needing to play Bangoura more, but I think his reasoning for sitting him is more straightforward, although still misguided. Bangoura is absolutely a negative when it comes to ball progression and possession. He gives nothing going forward. But that’s fine! Especially since Gomes is absolutely an enormous negative defensively, and offers nothing when it comes to winning the ball back once it’s lost. The only thing he offers is superior ball retention/passing and even then it’s nowhere near elite. By keeping Gomes as a starter Rydström is essentially saying he wants to try to keep playing some semblance of Nancy ball, using Gomes as a Temu Nagbe, even while changing the formation and tactics surrounding the central midfield. It’s goofy and nonsensical. Play the bulldog you have sitting on the bench, and fully lean into the new tactics, as unsightly as they may be.
Or better yet, play with 3 CMs. That way Gomes has extra runner support, and Bangoura will always have two CMs and 2 CBs surrounding him, so he should be able to just play quick passes to them.
The 4-3-3 with a stay at home FB (3-2-5) has been the obvious play all season. It probably doesnt fit HR's pressing tactics, which the team still struggles at game to game.
Our best games have been when Taha's usage rate has been crazy high. You put him at the 8/10 with 2 other CMs instead of this weird false SS spot, you could get some seriously good interplay. We might not put a shot away, but we could probably get more than 1xG per game.
I'll give HR the tiniest bit of credit here (see, I'm fair lol) in that I did see 'relationism' at times in this Philly game. There were moments where I saw three of four guys all running together like a pack of wolves. Great to finally see it on an MLS field. That being said, it resulted in an xG of 0.42 compared to Philly's 0.92 xG. This is despite 'winning' the possession battle 62% to 38% (easy to win when the other team refuses to possess the ball). Philly had 12 shots, we had 5. Philly had 24 touches in the box, we had 12. It's useless, sterile, and incredibly boring possession for possession's sake. The defense is bad overall. Too bad to press, too bad to bunker. What is the solution? Play with fewer numbers than everyone else in the league in midfield and just let teams overwhelm us. Awesome. The dude MIGHT be starting to get his ideas across, but if these are the results (against the literal and comfortably worst team in the entire league) then I'm out on HR. He's gotta go. Bring in Laurent for the rest of the season, play the kids. If Bez has someone he really wants whenever he gets here, then fine. Literally anyone but HR. Don't let the door back to Sweden hit you on the ass on the way out.
The Columbus Crew and General Manager Issa Tall announced today that Henrik Rydström has been relieved of his duties as head coach. Laurent Courtois has been named the Black & Gold’s interim head coach.📰: https://t.co/RjMIFUaOFl pic.twitter.com/LYx7mA9vf0— The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) May 17, 2026