Columbus, OH - the thorn in the side of Mexican fútbol
An ode to my hometown, a special stadium, and the team that almost ceased to exist!
*I am trying something new here - check out the voiceover if you’d like to hear this story audibly*
Many of you may not know my origin story related to the beautiful game. It all started back in the late 90s in Columbus, OH during the beginning years of MLS. Some of my best childhood memories were going to Crew Stadium with my family and watching games. My dad, who played soccer in college, explained the game to me and told me all about the star players on the pitch. I was mesmerized by the team and the game from that moment.
As a young kid, I’m glad I didn’t grow up with this sense of inferiority that many MLS fans had and still have. For me, the Columbus Crew were like Barcelona, Crew Stadium was the San Siro, and Stern John, Brian McBride, and Jeff Cunningham were like Figo, Zidane, and O Fenômeno Ronaldo. I know that sounds crazy - maybe it is! But can we pause for a moment to appreciate the greatness of Stern John’s two-year run in 1998-1999?
A synonym for Columbus? How about Dos a Cero
Zooming out a bit, most people around Concacaf (especially in Mexico) don’t think of The Crew when Columbus comes up. They probably think of three simple words…Dos a Cero. Let’s rewind to February 2001. It was a brutally cold evening and Columbus was hosting a USMNT game against their archrival, Mexico, for the first time. This rivalry is always intense, but this was a World Cup qualifier, so the stakes were even higher.
Star players Brian McBride and Claudio Reyna were both subbed off due to injury in the first half and one of the substitutes, Josh Wolff, would go on to make the difference. He scored early in the first half on a freak goal and provided the assist to Earnie Stewart late in the game to seal a 2-0 victory. The mythology of Dos a Cero was born that night in Columbus!
That infamous scoreline carried over into the 2002 World Cup Round of 16 when the USMNT shocked El Tri 2-0 to advance and deny Mexico their quinto partido. In the next 3 World Cup qualifying cycles (2006, 2010, and 2014), US Soccer again decided to host games against Mexico in Columbus at Crew Stadium. The results in those three games: 2-0…2-0…and 2-0. It became known as ‘La Casa del Terror’ to many in the Mexican media.
I love this quote from Michael Bradley about the importance of Columbus and Crew Stadium to soccer in a country that craved traditions and some kind of history that the world could take note of.
"We have history here. For soccer in our country, that's not always the case. Soccer is still in its growing stages. For us to feel like we walk into a stadium and there's history is a special feeling, the people here in Columbus and this part of the United States love soccer. They love our team. They love the United States. When we come here, when we step out onto this field, there's an overwhelming feeling of American support.”
Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. It was bound to happen at some point. In November 2016, during the failed 2018 World Cup Qualifying campaign, El Tri marched into Crew Stadium and scored the opening goal. There would be no Dos a Cero that night. After the US equalized, Mexico had a corner late in the game. The legendary Rafa Marquez scored the winning goal off a beautiful header. Was that the end of Mexican soccer’s Columbus curse?
Since that Marquez goal, the US has not played Mexico in Columbus but the legend of Dos a Cero lived on as the team has recreated that magical scoreline in other venues. It remained unclear for many years whether the city of Columbus would just be a memory in the history books of the ongoing footballing rivalry between the US and Mexico. In recent months, the city is reclaiming its place in that story in a new way.
The Crew carry on the legacy
In the year between October 2017 and 2018, the idea of the Columbus Crew having an impact on US/Mexican soccer would have been laughable. Why? Crew owner, Ryan Precourt, was trying to relocate the franchise to Austin, TX. It was a sad situation - one of the original MLS teams with a die-hard fanbase and a ton of history was at risk of ceasing to exist. A great documentary series from COPA90 called ‘The Battle for Columbus | Save The Crew’ details the fight to keep the team in the city.
Ultimately, a new ownership group purchased the team from Precourt, and they stayed put. Since then, the team began to build into a model of what MLS teams could strive for (other than the 2021 rebrand debacle…we can just pretend that didn’t happen). Let’s take a look at some of their activity since the ownership change:
Winning their second MLS Cup in 2020
Bringing in signings like Darlington Nagbe, Lucas Zelarayán, Cucho Hernández, and Diego Rossi
Hiring one of the best managers and tacticians in the region, Wilfried Nancy
Building an incredible academy and reserve team that wins trophies, develops players like Aiden Morris and Jacen Russell-Rowe, and springboards coaches like current Montreal manager Luarent Courtois
Winning their third MLS Cup in 2023
That’s all well and good…but what does it have to do with Mexican soccer? Despite being in the same city and playing in the same stadium that birthed Dos a Cero, The Crew (like the rest of MLS) had historically struggled mightily against Liga MX competition in the Concacaf Champions Cup:
2003 Quarterfinals, lost to Morelia 2-6 on aggregate
2009/10 Group Stage, lost in both games to Cruz Azul by a combined 0-7
2009/10 Quarterfinal, lost to Toluca 4-5 on aggregate
2021 Quarterfinal, lost to Monterrey 2-5 on aggregate
Before Crew fans come at me and point to wins against Liga MX clubs like the 2021 Campeones Cup final vs Cruz Azul or the 4-1 smashing of Club América in the Leagues Cup group stage, I need to make one thing clear. Those games have meaning, but they don’t move the needle on the US vs Mexico or MLS vs Liga MX debate. They were one-off games played in conditions that were swayed in Columbus’ favor.
The Concacaf Champions Cup has always been the great leveler and the measuring stick for the on-field products of MLS and Liga MX. I laid out the Crew’s struggle above and we have seen the trend of MLS struggling against Liga MX continue in the 2024 edition. Whether it was Philadelphia getting waxed by Pachuca 6-0, América embarrassing the Revolution 9-2, or Messi and friends getting punished by Monterrey 5-2 (all on aggregate), it has been a nightmare year for MLS…except for one club living the dream.
The Columbus Crew have literally been defying the odds in 2024. They faced off against Tigres in the quarterfinals - arguably the most successful Liga MX club in the last decade. After drawing in the opening leg in Columbus, most pundits assumed they would get eliminated at El Volcán in the second leg. Why? Not just their own previous struggles, MLS clubs held a 17-53 record vs Liga MX in CCC knockout rounds and the record for MLS teams playing away legs in Mexico was 5-37.
After a disastrous giveaway to start the game, The Crew battled back to force penalties and took down mighty Tigres to advance to the semifinals. Their opponent, Tigres’ cross-town rival, arguably the most talented roster in Concacaf, and the team that just ran Inter Miami out of town, Rayados de Monterrey.
The Crew played a great first leg at home and took a 2-1 advantage into the second leg on the road. This wasn’t unfamiliar territory for the Crew, they had just made a trip there to play Tigres…but another trip to Monterrey was probably weighing on the minds of a few players. In the 2021 CCC Quarterfinal, Columbus was tied heading into the second leg and was run off the field 3-0.
Columbus gave up an early goal to start Wednesday’s game and because of the away goal tie-breaker, if the score held, they would have been eliminated. The Crew did not crumble as most MLS teams had, they continued to play within the system that Wilfried Nancy had created and grabbed a stoppage-time goal to regain the advantage. The second half was all Columbus and they won 3-1 and reversed the 5-2 aggregate score from 3 years prior.
They move on to the Concacaf Champions Cup final, where they will play at 5-time CCC champions, Pachuca on Saturday, June 1. put out a great post on this matchup here (you should really subscribe to his newsletter ‘Getting CONCACAFed’)
Based on this run from The Crew, and my extensive research, I have arrived at a conclusion. The “special sauce” was not US Soccer’s game location decision, the USMNT itself, or even Historic Crew Stadium (only the reserve team for The Crew still plays there). The thorn in Mexican soccer’s side is the city of Columbus itself. There is no other explanation.
More talented El Tri teams could not find a way to win against the US there for over 15 years. Liga MX, which still has superior on-field talent (sorry MLS fans), has been running up the score on every MLS team this year…except for The Crew. Who would have thought that they could walk into Monterrey and eliminate Los Regios??
I don’t want to take anything away from Wilfried Nancy and The Crew front office for the incredible job they have done. They are truly doing amazing things at the club and as I said earlier, they are an example for the rest of MLS in building a team that can compete within the league and regionally.
This Crew team, led by Nancy, is the perfect team at the perfect time in a city that continues to be filled with the mystique and mythology of Dos a Cero. Maybe I am romanticizing all of this a bit, but isn’t that the beauty of this sport around the world? Isn’t that what makes it so special?
I am proud to be from Columbus - a city cemented in the lore of the beautiful game in the United States. In the past, it was the frigid night games between the USMNT and Mexico. Today it’s a city that is home to a team who had to fight just to stay there and who now holds the pen that continues to write their city into the history books.
Here’s to the 614….here’s to Columbus, Ohio!