All season long, the Columbus Crew have given supporters one dominating win after another. So, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Saturday’s Fan Appreciation Night provided more of the same: a dominating win in an electric environment – even with a somewhat rotated squad.
The Black & Gold beat the New England Revolution, 4-0, at Lower.com Field in a match where Alex Matan scored a hat trick that helped Columbus set a new single-season record for goals and wins in a campaign.
“Listen, this is not easy, but this is the challenge,” head coach Wilfried Nancy said of finding success with the entire roster. “The challenge is, yes, we have few players who played a lot, it's normal, but everybody knows their role, I would say. The idea is also to be honest with the players. After that, in terms of results, I don't know, but the performance for me is really important. I'm really happy when I can see any kind of player that I can put in and they bring something. For me, this is the key point.”
It was DeJuan Jones scoring against his former team that set the stage.
Five minutes into the match, AZ led a counter attack and distributed the ball wide to DeJ. Jones, who played on the right flank. Then, Jones unleashed a clinical back-post shot for an early lead.
“I’m happy because technically this is a really difficult goal to score, but he did it with the left foot,” Nancy said of Jones. “I decided to put him on the right side in the beginning, and after that, we switched also the position on the left side. He did a good game. He's able to bring a lot of energy, and he's able also to understand how we want to manipulate the opposition.”
Matan scored his first goal nine minutes later when Dylan Chambost won the ball and played the Romanian in behind.
Then, in a moving moment, Matan celebrated by hugging Nancy, who he’s flourished under since the coach joined the team in 2023.
The lead was extended to three in the 64th minute when Rudy Camacho played a long ball toward Matan, who skillfully rounded a defender for his brace. The assist was Camacho’s first in MLS.
Matan's third arrived nine minutes later – again– when Derrick Jones played him through for the hat trick.
“It's just so happy,” Matan said. “It's my first career hat trick. I scored more goals in one game than I scored in like my past seasons.”
With the big win, the Crew have now scored 69 goals in MLS play through 33 games, which is a new single-season club record. Last year the club lead MLS with 67 goals, which tied the team record initially set in 1998.
Additionally, the win was a club-record seventh time in league play this season that the Black & Gold scored four or more goals in a match. Not only does that stat lead MLS in 2024, too, but under Nancy, the Crew have recorded four or more goals in a match in 11 games in the last two seasons.
Oh, and the standards continue to rise. Additionally, Saturday night’s Fan Appreciation Night win was the team’s 18th this season – another club record.
"I saw the two minutes of video about the Saved the Crew today, and I had goosebumps,” Nancy said. “We had many sellouts. The fans are here. They want to come because my players are able to do good stuff so there is a link behind that. I told them without the people who fought a lot to save the club, impossible to do that.
“[Saturday], this is not about New England, this is not about the opposition - this is about the fans. This is about the people who try to fight to keep the club. I'm really pleased for that.”
But the reigning league champs aren’t done writing their story yet. Next Saturday, the Crew face the New York Red Bulls on MLS Decision Day in the final match of the regular season. Columbus is guaranteed the No. 2 seed and, if the season ended today, would play the Red Bulls in the first round of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.
