Crew Coverage pres. by Medical Mutual | Nancy: ‘We are in control’ entering Leagues Cup break

The plan was for Saturday night to be the setting for the Columbus Crew to earn another positive result and enter the Leagues Cup break riding momentum.

And even if the Black & Gold lost, 2-1, at Atlanta United FC inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, head coach Wilfried Nancy reiterated the reigning MLS Cup champions are in a good place.

“Like I said to the players, obviously, it's been really good what we have done,” Nancy said in regards to the start of the season. “Disappointment today for sure, but I think that in all competitions and the consistency that we had for the first part of it was really interesting.

“The idea is to do a new competition with the Leagues Cup. After that, we're going to go back and focus on the last 12-13 games that we have. I think that we are in control. Now, we have to go back when we start the MLS again for the last 13 games.”

As of now, the Crew sit third in the Eastern Conference with 43 points from 23 league matches – the team’s second-best start to a season in Club history.

For a team that navigated a congested schedule as the Black & Gold journeyed through Concacaf Champions Cup and into the competition’s final, Columbus has continued to dominate opponents – even if Saturday ended without earning a point.

“Obviously, it’s not the way we wanted to end this part going into this little break,” Sean Zawadzki said after the game. “I guess you could say it’s a good time to go into this break, you know, get some time to kind of look back at what we’ve done so far in the season. Albeit, yeah, tonight was disappointing and frustrating, but looking back at how we've done so far this season, we're in a pretty good spot looking ahead.”

The Crew took a first-half lead in the 36th minute when Diego Rossi scored his 12th goal across all competitions. As the visitors played in on goal, Alex Matan found space on the left side before playing a low ball back into the 6-yard box. The ball was initially parried by Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan, but straight toward the feet of Rossi who slotted it home.

The Uruguayan forward now has 19 goal contributions this year, surpassing his Gold Boot campaign in 2020. This is his most goal contributions since 2019, when he had 23.

But Atlanta center back Stian Gergersen negated Rossi’s goal at the hour mark, then scored the game winner in the 77th minute.

“We made a mistake in terms of the guy that we should mark. Simple as that,” Nancy said. “It’s a big mistake. It could happen. This is two goals that we conceded by not doing the right responsibility.”