Arace: Wilfried Nancy and the Tao of the Crew as they prepare to defend MLS Cup title
Crew coach Wilfried Nancy likes to say, “The game is infinite.”
Infinity is a difficult concept to fathom, which is the point. If you, as a coach, acknowledge that you’ll never know everything, then you’re on the path to enlightenment. It follows, then, that you can never expect perfection from your players. It is the journey that counts, together.
“We are all the same,” Nancy said after the Crew came back from two goals down to shock FC Cincinnati, 3-2 in extra time, in Cincinnati, in the MLS Eastern Conference final on Dec. 2. A week later, the Crew knocked off LAFC, the defending champions, 2-1 in the MLS Cup final in Columbus.
What will Nancy’s second year in Columbus bring?
Nancy and his Crew have already upended conventional thinking that says that a championship team must have, as one of its major tools, a defensive clamp. To use a tired phrase, when the stakes are at their highest, the best teams can “back up the bus” to protect a lead. Defense wins championships, etc.
Nancy’s system is an aggressive, possession-oriented, 3-4-2-1 that morphs into different patterns. It is designed to discomfit defenses and score, score, score. The Crew have a couple of minivans, depending on how the players read and react when they don’t have the ball, but there is no bus.
“Nancy ball” or “braveball,” as it has been called, is counterintuitive at its core. The players must buy into the system and gain command of a whir of details. It works only if players trust the coach and one another, and it works best when a certain joie de vivre is present. Half of Nancy’s work is in the details and the other half is personal and interpersonal. In this, he thrives. He is part Lao Tzu and RZA, with a sprinkling of Yoda and Winnie the Pooh and a dash of the Ted Lasso and the Lama. To listen to him is to understand he will have total consciousness on his deathbed.
Between camp sessions in Florida and Santa Barbara, California (where the team arrived Wednesday), the Crew spent a few days at home earlier last week. Nancy met the media. What follows are some of his views on the Tao of the Crew.
On what the team did in the initial stage of training camp:
The first leg is about concept. No structure. It’s all about no system. It’s all about cues. The second leg is going to be about the structure. If we build up, if we try to advance, how many (opposing) players are inside the box? Defensively, how do we defend at the line, and outside the box, and inside of the box? More instruction. ... We’re able to get to the complex exercises already. Last year, it took three or four weeks. So, this is a big difference. This is good. The idea now is to give them more tools, with and without the ball.
On installing his system at all three levels of the Crew organization – the academy and minor-league levels, in concert with the senior team:
With all humility, I came here for that. I came from the academy (in Montreal). The vision of the club is to have alignment and coherence. So, the idea is to have the club, the staff, the coaches and the front office have the same language. In languages, there are dialects. The big picture is the language and after that, each team uses the same language – but with nuance. I’ll give you an example:
Because I play with a back three, (do) I expect all teams to play with a back three? No. I don’t agree with that. I believe in the concept with the ball and without the ball. Because the idea is to develop players to be competitive but also to set them in the future. So, what tools do we use to help those players get better? This is what it’s about. This is our structure.
On whether he sets goals at this time of year:
We’re going to have a meeting and talk about what happened last year and what is the future. But the goal will not change. How can we become better ‘me?’ The better me has got to be regarding what we did last year. Not about the winning part, but how do we improve how we play? We have to improve our mental aspect, and so on. The focus is going to be on that, and the result will be second.
On his desire to win a Supporters’ Shield and his approach to a schedule that will be congested due to outside competitions (CONCACAF Champions Cup, Leagues Cup, U.S. Open Cup, Campeones Cup):
I’m sorry to be redundant, but it’s all about (every) new game is going to be a new story. The only thing I can tell you is I would like one day to win the Supporters’ Shield. Because for me, this is about consistency during the season, knowing that during the season we’re going to have (50-plus games, potentially). This is something that counts. Now, what is going to happen, I don’t know. My objective is to reach between 13 and 15 wins (in MLS) and after that, after the last game (of the regular season), we’re going to be able to push forward to win something or get something. This is the idea.
On the logistics of building a big enough roster to handle an expanded schedule:
The number of players, we’re OK with that. Maybe in the future we’d like to add one or two players. We’ll see; it depends on the opportunity. We did research regarding that. It’s not about how many players that you have to compete in every competition. It’s about how many core players you have to compete in all competitions. I don’t have a magic number, but I can tell you it’s usually between 22 and 25 players, and within that 16 or 17 core players. This is not an exact number. This is something I’m leaning toward because I feel good with that. I don’t like big numbers because it’s difficult to work with everyone.
On comparisons to last year:
Last year was last year. We won a championship, yes, but last year was last year. The idea is to get better as a player and as a person.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Arace: Nancy is parts Yoda, Winnie the Pooh, Ted Lasso and the Lama
