The team that SI.com’s Greg Lalas calls “The Milwaukee Bucks of Major League Soccer” (non basketball fans note: this is not a good thing), the Columbus Crew, has surprised just about everyone this year in assuming top spot in the league’s loaded Eastern Conference. Sure, it’s only seven games into the season, but when you consider that six wins is already half way toward making the MLS playoffs, the Crew looks a sure bet to make the MLS postseason for the first time in three years.
But Lalas says signs indicate that this team can aspire to greater things than simply making the playoffs. He puts the Crew’s success down to the careful management of Coach Sigi Schmid, who by now has almost completely revamped the team he inherited in 2006. “Schmid simply doesn’t lose,” Lalas says. “But not losing was going to take time…unlike, say, the gotta-win-now Los Angeles Beckhams or the gotta-win-soon New York Red Bulls, the Crew had time to make sure they got it right.”
Lalas says the Crew has that perfect blend of experience (Frankie Hejduk, Alejandro Moreno), youth (Robbie Rogers, Adam Moffat), hard work (Danny O’Rourke, Brian Carroll), and of course, one golden playmaker (Guillermo Barros Schelotto). “In many ways, this is like a perfect reproduction of the great New England and Houston teams of the past few years,” he declares.