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The Columbus Crew heads into the 2018 season with one big question mark. Will the team stay in Columbus or will they move to Austin, Texas? The Crew is owned by Anthony Precourt and Precourt Sports Ventures LLC, and Precourt said that they will move the team to Austin unless they get a new downtown stadium in Columbus. The Crew is one of the ten charter members of the league, so it would be sad to see them move. The Crew are coming off a good season in 2017, as they made it to the East Final before losing to Toronto FC.
Columbus Crew MLS Odds
The Crew won’t be favored to win the MLS Cup in 2018 but they could be a contender. The team played well in 2017 and made a really nice playoff run before losing to a very good Toronto FC team. Columbus improved 18 points from 2016 to 2017 and it is possible they could be even better in 2018.
MLS Results
The Crew finished 16-12 with 6 draws last season for a total of 54 points. They had a goal differential of +4. The Crew made a very good playoff run but couldn’t get past Toronto FC in the East Final. Defender Josh Williams said that the team doesn’t need to make many changes in the offseason. “I would take this team again,” he said to ESPN. “We line up again, we've got it all to play for again and I want everyone I just played with on the field. ... This is my team, these are my boys. (Toronto) are the Supporters’ Shield (winners), the greatest team ever in MLS history and we just pushed them to the limit so we're not far off. Any other day maybe we're in the final.”
Captain Wil Trapp said the team is only going to get better. “There's lots of positives to take away but there's a lot of things we can improve on. I think it's good that we're disappointed, it shows how much belief we had…,” Trapp said, “It's by no means an ending point for us, it's a lot of new guys this year and I think it's only going to improve.”
Players to Watch
Columbus has two good scorers in Ola Kamara and Justin Meram and they also have a good midfielder in Trapp, a solid defender in Williams and a quality goalkeeper in Zack Steffen.
The Coach
Head coach Gregg Berhalter has led the Crew to the playoffs in three of his four seasons in Columbus.
Columbus Crew History
Columbus began play in 1996 as one of the charter members of Major League Soccer. The first game for Columbus came on April 13, 1996 with Columbus winning 4-0 against D.C. United. Columbus plays their home games at Mapfre Stadium which is a soccer-specific stadium.
Columbus won the MLS Cup in 2008 and they won the Supporters’ Shield in 2004, 2008 and 2009. They also won the U.S. Open Cup in 2002. They qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League three times and made the quarterfinals each time.
The top rival for Columbus is the Chicago Fire and Columbus also has a rivalry with Toronto FC with the teams playing for the Trillium Cup. Columbus also plays FC Dallas for the Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup.
Columbus Crew Predictions
The Crew made a lot of progress in 2016, as they improved 18 points and made the playoffs. More improvement is definitely possible, but Columbus is still behind Toronto FC in the East. The best case for Columbus would probably be finishing in second place in the East and getting into a better spot to begin the playoffs.
Columbus Crew Roster
G - Zack Steffen
D - Jukka Raitala
D - Josh Williams
D - Jonathan Mensah
D - Hector Jiménez
D - Lalas Abubakar
D - Connor Maloney
D - Alex Crognale
D - Harrison Afful
MF - Mohammed Abu
MF - Federico Higuaín
MF - Cristian Martínez
MF - Wil Trapp
MF - Pedro Santos
F - Niko Hansen
F - Justin Meram
F - Ola Kamara
F - Adam Jahn
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