Columbus Crew

Also written as Columbus.

The club

Columbus Crew were founded on 15 June 1994 as one of the ten charter members of Major League Soccer and began competitive play in 1996, opening their first season with a 4-0 win over D.C. United at Ohio Stadium on 13 April 1996. The name came from a public naming contest of some 2,500 entries; the winning idea nodded to Christopher Columbus's ship's crew, but the club pivoted the identity toward a Midwestern construction crew, putting three shadowed men in hard hats on the original crest.

In 1999 the club opened Columbus Crew Stadium, the first soccer-specific stadium built for a Major League Soccer team in the United States, with a capacity of 19,968. The Crew are not to be confused with Columbus Crew 2, a separate club that has served as the first team's affiliate in the second-tier USL system; nor, briefly, with "Columbus SC", the name the first team itself carried for part of 2021 after dropping "Crew" during ownership turmoil, before reverting to Columbus Crew following fan pressure.

In October 2017 the then-owner, Anthony Precourt, announced he intended to move the franchise to Austin, Texas unless a new downtown stadium was secured in Columbus. The announcement triggered the SaveTheCrew supporter campaign, and in March 2018 the Ohio attorney general sued under the state's "Modell Law", passed after the Cleveland Browns' 1995 relocation, to block the move. Jimmy Haslam's ownership group bought the club in December 2018, keeping it in Columbus, and the lawsuit was dropped once the sale went through. Precourt was granted a separate MLS expansion licence for Austin, which became Austin FC; Columbus Crew and Austin FC are two different clubs whose histories briefly shared one owner and one stadium threat.

The club's new stadium opened on 3 July 2021, in downtown Columbus's Arena District, seating 20,371 and built at a cost of about 314 million dollars. It opened under the naming-rights sponsorship of the Columbus-based lender Lower.com and was known as Lower.com Field through the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons, including the 2023 MLS Cup final and the 2024 MLS All-Star Game. On 25 November 2025 the naming rights passed to the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and the ground was renamed ScottsMiracle-Gro Field.

Recent seasons

Columbus won the 2023 MLS Cup under head coach Wilfried Nancy, having finished third in the Eastern Conference and third overall in the regular season with 16 wins, 9 draws and 9 losses, 67 goals scored and 46 conceded. In 2024 they were runners-up in the CONCACAF Champions Cup and won the Leagues Cup, and finished second overall in MLS with a 19-6-9 record and 66 points, second in the Eastern Conference behind Inter Miami, before going out in the first round of the playoffs. Nancy left after that season. Henrik Rydström was head coach into 2026 before being replaced by Laurent Courtois as interim manager on 17 May 2026.

Honours and landmarks

MLS Cup winners in 2008, 2020 and 2023. Supporters' Shield winners in 2004, 2008 and 2009. U.S. Open Cup winners in 2002, the club's first trophy. Leagues Cup winners in 2024. Campeones Cup winners in 2021. Runners-up in the 2015 MLS Cup, beaten 2-1 at home by Portland Timbers, and runners-up in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Chad Marshall holds the club appearance record with 277 appearances in all competitions. Brian McBride is the club's all-time leading scorer with 79 goals in all competitions, ahead of Jeff Cunningham on 74 and Gyasi Zardes on 61.

Notable scorelines

Columbus won the 2008 MLS Cup 3-1 over New York Red Bulls at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, on 23 November 2008, with goals from Alejandro Moreno, Chad Marshall and Frankie Hejduk; Guillermo Barros Schelotto was named MVP after three assists, an MLS Cup record. They won the 2020 MLS Cup 3-0 over Seattle Sounders at Mapfre Stadium on 12 December 2020, in front of a pandemic-restricted crowd of 1,500, Lucas Zelarayán scoring twice and Derrick Etienne Jr. once; Zelarayán was MVP and the first player to score twice in an MLS Cup final since 2004. They won the 2023 MLS Cup 2-1 over Los Angeles FC at Lower.com Field on 9 December 2023 in front of 20,802, Cucho Hernández converting a 33rd-minute penalty and Yaw Yeboah adding a second in the 37th minute before Dénis Bouanga replied for LAFC; Hernández was MVP.

In the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup, Columbus eliminated Tigres UANL in the quarter-finals 5-4 on aggregate, winning the away leg 3-1, then beat Monterrey on penalties in the semi-finals after two 1-1 draws, before losing the single-match final 3-0 away to CF Pachuca at Estadio Hidalgo on 1 June 2024. In the 2023 MLS regular season their biggest win was 6-1 at home to Atlanta United on 25 March, Christian Ramirez scoring twice, and their heaviest defeat that season was 4-1 away to Philadelphia Union on the opening day, 25 February, Dániel Gazdag scoring twice from the penalty spot for Philadelphia. In 2024 they beat Los Angeles FC 5-1 in the league. The club's all-time record win and record defeat across its full history were not established from the sources read here.

Head-to-head notes

The Crew's main modern rivalry is the Hell Is Real derby against FC Cincinnati, named for a Ohio roadside sign; Columbus beat Cincinnati in the 2023 playoffs on their way to the MLS Cup title. Head-to-head records against specific opponents beyond the fixtures listed above were not established from the sources read here.

Right now (2026)

Laurent Courtois has been interim head coach since 17 May 2026, having replaced Henrik Rydström. As of 23 August 2026 Columbus sit 15th in the Eastern Conference with a record of 5 wins, 11 draws and 5 losses from 21 matches for 20 points, 29th in the overall Supporters' Shield standings, with 30 goals scored and 36 conceded. Recent results include a 2-3 home loss to Nashville on 22 August, a 1-2 loss away to CF Montréal on 19 August, a 1-3 loss away to Charlotte FC on 15 August, a 2-2 draw at home to Inter Miami on 1 August, and a 2-1 win at home over FC Cincinnati on 25 July. In the U.S. Open Cup, Columbus went through the round of 32 unbeaten in three matches, scoring 8 goals and conceding 1. Forward Wessam Abou Ali and midfielder Dániel Gazdag are the club's Designated Players. Full detail on the 2026 Leagues Cup campaign and summer transfer business was not confirmed from the sources read here.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.