For the first time since 2018 – and only the third time in the club’s 30-year history – the Columbus Crew have won two-straight games to start the regular season thanks to a 1-0 win at the New England Revolution on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.
But according to head coach Wilfried Nancy and his players, that goal felt like one or two more thanks to the bone-chilling temperatures and swirling winds throughout the match.
“The game was amazing. It was so cold, so difficult to play,” Nancy said. “My team did a really good job to first of all play the way we want to play. Again, we managed the game really well to have this opportunity to score the goal. After that we defended well, we had opportunities – also, we hit the post. For me, this is like we won 3-0 because with the difficulty with the weather and so on. Well done for the guys.”
Nancy said he had on three layers for his legs and was still freezing. As for the players, Mohamed Farsi, who produced his first assist of 2025, joked it was 1000% colder in Foxborough than the Blue Jacket’s NHL Stadium Series back home at Ohio Stadium.
“Yeah, when you're on TV, you cannot see how cold it is, but I'll be honest, it was freezing,” Farsi said. “We couldn't even talk. Our mouth like couldn't move. Yeah, of course, when it's cold like that, it's very hard to play. I think with the weather and the conditions, we did a pretty good performance.”
Even the Ukrainian agreed it was freezing.
“You barely can move your body because it's cold,” Yevhen Cheberko said. “I cannot complain so much because I'm from Ukraine so I am used a little bit to the cold, but the guys like Stevie (Moreira), Mo, Darlington (Nagbe) and Diego Rossi, for them I think it's like triple worse than me.
“For them it was harder, but we just stayed together and we tried to fight together. Maybe the game wasn't the best and not so many chances from both sides, but I call this just a solid win.”
But playing through adversity is what we’ve come to expect from the Black & Gold. In each of Nancy’s two seasons with Columbus, the Crew have secured wins in extremely difficult conditions and environments.
On Saturday night, the three points were secured via Jacen Russell-Rowe’s second goal in as many matches, as he finished a fine counter attack.
Now, there’s little time to thaw off before the next match, though.
On Tuesday night, the Black & Gold will be on the other side of the country playing in another competition: the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Columbus begins play in the continental tournament in the Round of 16 against LAFC, its 2023 MLS Cup and 2024 Leagues Cup Final opponent. Tuesday is the first leg, with the second scheduled March 11 at Lower.com Field.
