As Atlanta United prepares to face the Columbus Crew on Sunday afternoon in the final match for both teams before the World Cup break, they’ll be playing a different team than the one that beat them 3-1 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on April 4.
For starters, there’s a new, but familiar, face in the Crew technical area: assistant coach and former CF Montréal boss Laurent Courtois took over as interim head coach on May 17 after the firing of Henrik Rydstrom. Despite Columbus’s struggles in the regular season, it’s one win away from the U.S. Open Cup final following Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Red Bull New York. Then there’s Wessam Abou Ali. After five goals in seven matches — including a brace against Atlanta — he suffered a torn ACL and a meniscus injury on April 12 against Orlando City, ending his season.
What can we expect on Sunday? To get more insight into the Crew, I reached out to Tyler Fisher (X, Bsky) from Massive Report (X, Bsky).
Henrik Rydstrom seemed like a poor fit for the Columbus Crew, and I’d imagine Laurent Courtois will employ some tactical changes. Here’s a twofold question: Do you expect Courtois to be a serious candidate for the job, or could the club look to bring back Wilfried Nancy (regardless of what Issa Tall has said about his European ambitions) or aim toward someone else outside the organization?
Courtois is definitely a serious candidate, especially with the USOC run. I think bringing Nancy back is unlikely given his talk of European ambition, but I wouldn’t rule it out entirely if things went south fast. I expect the club will look at Jim Curtin as well.
Columbus has at least something to hang its hat on as it’s two wins away from winning the U.S. Open Cup. Do you expect the focus coming out of the World Cup break will be primarily on that, or are there still hopes for a playoff push?
I think the focus will be split, but the playoff push is still the main goal. The USOC is a nice bonus, but making the playoffs is the priority right now. The break needs to be used to figure out how to win consistently in the league.
What tangible changes could you see being made to the Crew’s roster during the break? What are some of the major needs they have at this point?
They need serious depth at CB and a true goal-scoring No. 9 since Abou Ali is out for the season. The major need is definitely center-backs. I expect some movement on the wings, especially with Max Arfsten drawing European attention.
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The real question is if anyone will watch / cares at this point. Club has done a fantastic job destroying all fan interest.
If a soccer team falls in the woods….
I’ll be watching, but wow is it difficult to care at this point. Watched a ton of other matches last night. A lot of goals yesterday. Hoping to be entertained but not holding out hope.