From time to time during his post-match press conferences, head coach Wilfried Nancy uses the phrase “story of the game” to describe the previous 90 minutes.
The story of the game was quite simple following Saturday afternoon’s scoreless draw at Lower.com Field: The Columbus Crew absorbed Houston’s initial press, then spent the remainder of the match trying to breakdown a Dynamo backline camped out in a low block in its own territory.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. Opponents have done this against Columbus since Nancy joined the Club in 2023. But after Houston did this Saturday, and LAFC did the same the previous Tuesday – and presumably this upcoming Tuesday – breaking down opponents is an early test to the season that the Black & Gold now have to solve.
“No matter who’s on the team, I think it’s gonna be difficult to break the team down,” Sean Zawadzki said after the draw. “You see the top teams in the world that struggle with it. And I think it’s sticking together and looking back at the film and trying to build those relationships.
“You know, we’re still early in the season, we’re four games into the season. So, it’s building those relationships and picking up on these tendencies, and I think once we kind of get a flow of that throughout the season, I think hopefully things will start to happen.”
The Crew played well Saturday; it’s just the home side never found the breakthrough. Columbus carried 62% of possession, and it out-passed Houston, 598-346. Even the total shots were lop-sided, 12-3, and the Dynamo were reduced to a single shot on target.
Per usual, the Crew dictated play and implemented a vicious high press that’s already led to opponent mistakes, such as on Crewsmas. Only this time, the side was reduced to one clear chance, which arrived on the eve of halftime when Mohamed Farsi got behind the backline but had a chance stopped at point-blank range.
“We had a couple chances,” Farsi said. “I had one, I missed it. It's part of the game. It’s like that. I think that even last year, some games we didn't score a goal, but it happens, and we're just gonna work and keep adjusting certain things and that's it.”
And Nancy said the Crew will continue to use its high press to suffocate opponents.
“The best way to attack for us is to be aggressive up the pitch,” Nancy said. “The idea is that when we have a possibility to win the ball not to attack the box but to score. If we cannot, we keep the ball. Again, this is the mindset. This is really, really interesting what they did because this is demanding. That's why this mentality after what the last game that we had and to go again like this, I'm really happy about what they did.”
Despite finishing with a point, it’s worth keeping things in perspective. The Black & Gold are unbeaten through three matches to start the 2025 regular season, and the team has two-straight clean sheets.
“From my standpoint in the backline, two clean sheets in the last two games as well which is obviously the direction you want to go,” goalkeeper Patrick Schulte said. “If we’re not allowing any goals, we're going to be hard to beat. So, yeah, from my standpoint, you know, obviously it's, it's not rewarding, but we're headed in the right direction.”
There’s no time to dwell on the result, though.
On Tuesday night, the Black & Gold return to Lower.com Field on Tuesday night when they host LAFC in the second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup Round of 16. Columbus trails, 3-0, on aggregate. Secure your seat now.
