CCC is on semis. Coming to the end of this thing. Today: Club America hosts Pachuca Wednesday: Columbus Crew host Monterrey A few words from our friend Wilfried Nancy. “It’s all about us,” the Frenchman said after his team pushed past Tigres in the quarterfinals. "We respect the opposition, we try to adjust certain things depending on what kind of style of play we're going to face. But at the end of the day, we try to play our football.” That commitment to a singular style of play is a huge part of what's made Columbus so successful over the last calendar year. Few teams on this side of the Atlantic have such a distinct tactical vision – one built on possession, a clever mixture of on-and-off-ball movement, and field control. Even fewer can rival the Crew’s obvious commitment to their tactical approach. Up against some of the best and brightest in Concacaf, the Crew don’t lose faith in their vision. They averaged 53.5% possession across two legs against Tigres, eventually toppling André-Pierre Gignac & Co. in penalties. In last year’s MLS Cup win over LAFC, Columbus enjoyed 62% possession while playing out of their fluid 3-4-3 shape."
Club America and Pachuca tie 1-1 on first leg of semis Nobody stood out. Game was even with periods where one team or the other got into a groove, sort of, but nothing spectacular commensurate with the quality of rosters involved. I don't know if everybody was just not willing to have a barn burner mid-week match late in the MX season and having important weekend matches coming up or they are just tired. Crew vs Monterrey coming up. Monterrey said to be coming in diminished form. GO CREW!
Columbus Crew beat Monterrey 2-1 in first leg of semis and set themselves up for a win in Monterrey next Wednesday. Monterrey was undefeated so far in this tourney. Even the MX pundits are giving Crew the nod to go through to the CCC final. Nancy and Co. continue to impress. A young hungry group who have been honed into a mean, lean, fighting machine! Cucho being an animal out there tonight. Good game. MLS is well represented. Also, Columbus Crew has now outranked Philadelphia, so, in the event Monterrey beats Crew and then they go on to win the final (since they are already qualified for the World Club Championship) Columbus Crew gets to attend same. Two chances to go for the Crew. You can't beat that with a stick.
Well, here we go. It's CCC time again. Second leg. Note of interest is that the legs stop at semis. The final will a single game affair. Today: Pachuca hosts America tied at 1-1 Wednesday: Monterrey hosts Columbus Crew with Crew up 2-1 If Crew goes through another top MX team I am buying one of their Charlie Brown outfits and wear it proudly.
Philly was looking so strong in the east, but have imploded these last two games at home. Giving up an 89th minute game winner to RSL and now down 3-0 against a Seattle team who had only scored 10 goals over the prior 9 games. Sounders looking like the Seattle of old at exactly the wrong time.
Concacaf Champions Cup has a finalist. Pachuca beats Club America at Pachuca 2-1 making the agg 3-2, Pachuca. America is eliminated. How about them apples.
Well, color me very surprised…. VERY! Surprised. Columbus Crew not only qualified for the CCC final, they did in spectacular fashion going into The Steel Giant and dismantling, destroying! Monterrey 3-1 ( 5-2 on aggregate) before a very stunned stadium. It would have been 4-1 had dumbass Ramirez not missed his pen like an idiot. But a complete domination by Columbus nevertheless. The composure, the focus, the will to ignore an early goal by Rayados and keep working, keep playing their game until the opponent lost their concentration and give up the ghost in silly mistakes and then falling in desperation and completely unraveling. The deed by Crew cannot be overstated. A team with less than 16 million in payroll vs a team that boasts more than a 100 million. And it’s not just Monterrey. They also beat Tigres. Two of their tip top teams. The final will take place in Pachuca in a single match but now the Crew know, they can go into Mexico and play their game and win this damned thing. GO CREW!
The game started out looking like more of the same - MLS team ties or takes lead at home & then goes down to Mexico and gets their butt kicked. Sure enough Monterey goes up 1-0 quickly and the crew can’t even get a shot off. Then on the last kick of the first half Columbus snags a poor gk throw & score, changing the whole complexion of the game. In the second half the crew are absolutely clinical with their chances, their defense holds off Monterreys late surge and the Crew ended up playing them off the field. Well done Columbus!
A shout out to Cucho Hernandez and his tremedous contribution to this semi-final series. The guy is like a combo of Puig and Paintsil. Both able to explode into space and finish, blow by defenders, or start plays and set up teammates in succesful runs. But yeah, can you imagine what Galaxy would be like with a good coach like Wilfried at helm here? With the bag of money uncle Phil applies? And it would happen quickly under Nancy, not no 5 year freakin struggling-to-get-on-it's-feet program or whatever. This guy did it in Montreal in his first year, "The regular season saw Montreal set franchise records for wins (20), points (65) and goals scored (63), among other marks. Its 35 points away from home was also an MLS record in the non-shootout era." Now he's doing it with Columbus. He is a relative new coach at this level but I wonder what a coach like this could do with say, the national team?
Why is it like Nancy is getting by on a shoestring budget or something? Taking nothing from Wilfred Nancy, who is a fantastic coach -- the 3 DPs at his disposal (Nagbe, Rossi and Cucho) are not scrubs or anything. How do they compare to our current 3 or any 3 Vanney has had at his disposal since coming to the Galaxy? Just saying -- everything Nancy has done (so far) Greg has done. Won a SS, won a MLS Cup, made the CCL Final convincingly. 983920449527730176 is not a valid tweet id People then were talking about Vanney the way they talk about Nancy now. Why would we think Nancy would do better with the same bad front office from 2-3 years ago?
I really can't comment on the player talent, however I will speculate on why maybe Nancy would be better, and its all speculation as we can never know what a coach or player is thinking. vanney did accomplish quite a few things and being that successful from an outsider's view might have gone to his head and gave him an over confidence that he could do no wrong and from the way he addresses the media and us as fans like we have a room temperature IQ, seems to prove my point. IMO this is why vanney is not the same coach he was before the success, now there is no concrete way of knowing if Nancy has built an ego as big as vanney's or is levelheaded through all his success. just because two people have accomplished the same goals doesn't mean that they will continue to have the same results going forward. at the end of the day its about the coaches mindset and how he motivates his players and that's where the results will vary when looking at long term consistency and success.
Nancy v Vanney doesn't need any big reakdown. Go look when Vanney took over Toronto and how long it took him to win after 2014 when he took over. Lots of help from that FO in Toronto from all reports. Go take a look at that Toronto salary was. Top spender in the the league at the time. Go take a look at what old Vanney did the very next year with a top championship team. Probably what got him fired.... I mean what made him leave Toronto or at least what started the ball rolling. Go take a look at what Nancy did at Montreal with a modest budget. How many top DPs did he have there? Did Wilfried need MORE TIME or did he hit the ground running with Montreal? He did the same with Columbus making them champions the very first year. Columbus ranks 16 in roster salary as opposed to Galaxy who have the third most expensive roster and have stayed high on the hog throughout Vanney unfortunate stay here with little to nothing to show for it except constant frustration and failure. Just look, it's all there. Completely unrelated, I m starting to hate Miami and how they are just steamrolling everybody. You know they practically bought the MLS cup. Now I have hear how fantastic they are for whole week.I am gonna be sick. Good news San Jose lasted the match after going up 3-o on Bouanga and the Goats. LOL! Damn Chicho just scored. You know we could have had Chicho. Such a waste!
Yeah, that Vancouver team is really feisty and doing well regardless of what monies they have to spend. They just ended the match tied. You noticed he didn't go shake Wolffy's hand but went right into the field to congrat all his players. Wolff just looked at him, lol. Satriani is a character. I don't know what to make of that dude. Gives me Adrian Heath vibes. Still, he's got his little team ahead of Galaxy with all our fluff and DPs so he must be doing something right.
Bouanga scored an own goal. I can't fathom how they beat us at the pigpen. Oh wait, the Bouanga dive and the stupid ref. I can't wait until we have them at the Bowl. I CAN'T WAIT! I hope the team feels the same way.
Agree with this on Nancy vs. Vanney. Also, opposed to winning on DP talent, the Crew look like an amazing unit and play as one.
So you are saying that Columbus doesn't rely on their 3 DPs and 2 U22 Initiative players while the Galaxy do? If both their scoring and assist leaders weren't both DPs, I might find this credible. And how are they doing better than this year's Galaxy, who they trail in points per game and goal differential? They had the exact same result as the Galaxy against Nashville, the only opponent they have in common so far.
I guess they part I don't understand is why do we assume that Vanney just became a much worse coach and not that he was hamstrung by our notoriously bad front office? That hugely important detail about the FO keeps getting overlooked.
I'm sure someone will correct me but wasn't Vanney allowed a voice in player acquisitions and from reports he pushed the FO to acquire Cabral, Grandsir and the other French contingent of players after he scouted them. I find it hard to believe the FO and Vanney worked independently from each other, they worked with each other and if the FO was shown the door, there was every reason to believe that Vanney would go along with them. the first year he was here, there was quite a few bright spots and the team looked like it was on an upward trajectory, and he was doing it with players that GBS brought in. the following year when he had more control the team started to dip and, now in year 4 with a better FO and what seems a lot less scouting input from Vanney the team is headed in the right direction, however with bumps in the road that to most observers would be fixed with a manager that has a better grasp of the talent he has and not try to force his system on players who don't fit that mold. does Vanney deserve all the blame? no he doesn't but he deserves some of it and people seem to want to portray him as the victim when he was part of the problem.
Nancy had been with Montreal for years prior to taking over, first with the academy and then as assistant coach. So probably he knew intimately what to do differently there, what some of the issues were etc. Again -- taking nothing from him, I think he's a fantastic coach. I don't know Montreal's situation well enough to know what the issues were there, but I do know what they were with the Galaxy. And I don't know that Nancy would've been more successful here. I mean, it's pure speculation. It's just weird to act like Vanney hasn't had to contend with a TERRIBLE FO or that Nancy wouldn't also have had to do that? Like the narrative is almost becoming such that Vannye's squandered a good situation, instead of making the best of a terrible one. The idea that Vanney was "high on the hog " because we were paying almost 10 million for Chicharito and Douglas Costa for example. Would Nancy have gotten more out of those players?
You say that Nancy spent years with Montreal's lower ranks like if it automatically follows that if you spend time with the youth program of a team then you will be great at coaching the senior team and it doesn't work like that. I wished it did. Hell, Vanney has been here for years also, you know? What has that gotten us? He also hit the ground running with Columbus. maybe he is just a really good rook coach building a great career at it. The funny thing is that somehow our bad prior FO justifies Greg's awful run here with us. Sure Kline and Co. were of little help but Greg was/is the coach. You telling me they just sandbagged him with personnel without consulting with him? I think they did more than consult with him. Where did Cabral come from along with the rest of the French Foreign Legion? Who played at Bastia for almost half a decade? What sort of soccer do you think Vanney was watching while there? Vanney is going to go. I am sure of that and I wish that it was some sort of salve but it isn't. All we will have at the end of his run is many years down the drain and the uncertainty of who will replace him. There are no guarantees for that guy, whomever it turns out. But I gotta give you props for your loyalty to Vanney tho. There is an unbreakable bond there that is solid as a rock (you too Bruin.)