How Columbus Crew have made it to the MLS Cup Final under new coach, Wilfried Nancy
368 days.
That is how long it took Wilfried Nancy to take the Crew to the MLS Cup Final after being announced as the team's new head coach. After two seasons of missing the playoffs following the team's 2020 MLS Cup championship, the second in club history, Columbus will be playing in the final game of the season, in its home city once again.
For Nancy, who came to Columbus after two seasons leading the way for FC Montreal, this is the furthest he's ever been in the postseason, but this is not a dream come true yet. From day one, Nancy's message for his team has been to be "limitless." It's just one of concepts that he has tried to instill within the Crew's new system of play.
"I am really demanding with the way we want to play, really specific. They know that," Nancy said. "It's really important also to care about the human being behind that because in order to embrace that, they have to feel good as a person."
All season, Nancy has balanced bringing a new, unique playing style to the team while also putting an emphasis on maintaining the mindset among his players. He's a coach who wants his team to take risks and live in the moment, to be competitive while also taking a "we not me," approach to contributing to the team's success.
More on Nancy: Arace: Nancy teaches his players 'the scoreboard is not important' ... and means it
Now, 368 days later, it seems players who started the season with the Crew and those who were additions to the team midway through have brought into what their coach has been teaching and it has led them to one game away from MLS Cup gold.
A brave new system
The style of soccer that Nancy has brought to Columbus is a progressive one that allowed for the Crew to score a league-high 67 goals, which is also a franchise record. It has been detailed how Nancy runs his offense, and it is easy to "make things happen" in Nancy's system, according to Aidan Morris.
As Nancy has stated, the one of the hardest parts of his job is the fact the coaches aren't the ones out there on the field making things happen. But what he can control is how his players view his system.
"He has a very interesting view on the game, which I find great," the Crew's Malte Amundsen said. "I really enjoy playing in that brave system, playing entertaining football and I find it super interesting he sees the game different than a lot of other people."
His team's appreciation for him as a coach goes beyond the way he sees the game. His style of play calls for his players to take risks and he means it, even if that leads to mistakes along the way.
"He wants you to try different things," Sean Zawadzki said. "Mistakes are going to happen. He understands that. It's just kind of how you react to the situation and to mistake."
Egos aside
This postseason, there has been a club-record of seven different goal scorers. Some of the biggest contributions for the Crew during the MLS Cup have come from players coming off the bench.
Christian Ramirez, a veteran in the league, has had two of the most important goals for the Crew in the playoffs, and he did it as a sub. Julian Gressel, a huge midseason addition to the roster, was replaced in the starting 11 by a younger Mo Farsi earlier in the postseason, but still made an impact off the bench in the Eastern Conference Final with a cross that led to a FC Cincinnati own-goal. Kevin Molino, who came in after Ramirez, was credited with the assist on final goal of the Cincinnati game.
Read More: Columbus Crew's bench advances team to MLS Cup Final; Gressel and Ramirez play key roles
While no player prefers starting the game on the sideline, the way Nancy presents what he expects out of each player has made it easier to understand the decisions he makes.
"I think the coaching stuff makes it easy by defining a role pretty quickly," Gressel said. "You have something that you can always kind of going back to, specific rules and ways you want to do things in certain situations."
Nancy's ability to keep the message to his team consistent all season is why his unique style of play has been able to work so quickly in Columbus.
Back at home
When looking at how far the Crew has gone this season, it would be unjust to ignore the fact that a majority of their success throughout the regular season has been when they at Lower.com Field.
Their record playing in front of their home fan base was 12-1-4 in regular-season play, which is why Nancy found it funny that the two biggest games of the postseason so far were on the road. Getting through those rounds have brought the Crew back home and while an MLS Cup Final game will have a slightly different crowd, nothing can take away the fact that Columbus has the home-field advantage against LAFC with the championship on the line.
"We fought for that all year," Nancy said. "Because we finished third, we knew that it was the possibility to play at home. We have our fans behind us, and I don't know, there is something different (playing at home). You know sometimes you cannot explain but this is something that you feel."
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How Wilfried Nancy has led Columbus Crew to MLS Cup Final
