TV: Paramount+/CBS Sports Golazo Network (English)

I am not the usually matchday Thread guy. Please someone else take the duties on updating. I dont even have Paramount. Just made the tread cuz no one else has and its almost time.

GO CREW!​

Just curious what the attendance was tonight - I watched via streaming. It looked really light. Weather?

Hey all, happened to be in town when the match is happening tonight. Any recommendations for a place to watch the game around Short North?

Game Info

Date: May 20, 2026 | Venue: ScottsMiracle-Gro Field

Kickoff Forecast: 59° F, 10 mph winds NE, chance of rain

Broadcast Info

TV: Paramount+/CBS Sports Golazo Network (English)

Radio: 105.7 FM WXZX (English), 103.1 FM WWLA & 107.1 FM WWLG (Spanish)

Broadcast	PxP	Analyst
Paramount+/Golazo Network English	TBC	TBC
Radio English	Chris Doran	N/A
Radio Spanish	Juan Valladares	N/A

Injury Report (As of May 17th, Current Reports Unavailable)

Columbus Crew

• Wessam Abou Ali - Knee (Out)
• Malte Amundsen - Thigh (Out)
• Jamal Thiaré - Lower Leg (Out)
• Dylan Chambost - Ankle (Questionable)

NYCFC

• Alonso Martínez - Leg (Out)
• Drew Baiera - Leg (Out)
• Talles Magno - Leg (Out)
• Max Murray - Leg (Out)
• Aiden O’Neill - Leg (Out)
• Kevin O’Toole - Leg (Out)
• Maxi Moralez - Leg (Out)

Match Officials

• REF: TBC
• AR1: TBC
• AR2: TBC
• 4TH: TBC

Form Guide, All Comps (Oldest to Newest)

Columbus : W W L L L D | Home Form: L D W W W L

NYCFC : L W L W W D | Away Form: L W L W W D

Last 3 Meetings

Comp	Result	Date
MLS Regular Season	3-0 L	5/10/2026
MLS Regular Season	3-2 L	9/17/2025
MLS Regular Season	0-0 D	3/22/2025

https://www.youtube.com/live/kDkODz7kI9Q?si=L\_AuerGM\_6KM6r1A

21 minute mark

“My understanding is that indeed is happening”

I see people insisting we should have given him time and that the MLS isn’t like Europe. Why wouldn’t you want to use the same tried and true methods that make the best possible teams?

To those of you who say this isn’t Europe I’ll respond by saying this isn’t an American sport. We must not act like it is if we want a competitive team.

I applaud the FO decision to be this decisive and it shows they’re committed to this team when they easily could coast. I believe decisions like this got us Nancy in the first place and if we continue to be decisive we will succeed.

I know there are complications with signings but we need to start fresh because the football was not happening under Henrik. Our squad building wasn’t fancy under Nancy and it doesn’t need to be fancy going forward to put us into a good spot to make playoffs.

This is much better than waste an entire season and end up in the same place.

Im sorry, but how do you give a coach a half season to transition to a new league with such a mediocre roster? You dont even give him the proper players to fit his system yet?

Tall is the reason the roster is built the way it is, hes failed to find good enough replacements for the players he let go. Im not saying this coaching staff had the most potential but Jesus christ.

I have absolutely zero confidence this team sees a post-season under Issa Tall. None. Zero.

I reread those initial posts (here, here, and here) and found a lot of things that ended up coming true--curious if u/TheKungStefan or u/StillWatcher (or any others familiar with Henrik's previous stops!) have thoughts they'd be willing to share here?

Thought I’d share a Nancy-related tidbit from our title win at the weekend.

In the more than four months since we sacked him, we hadn’t played three at the back at all. Saturday was our title decider against Hearts. We needed to beat them, while for Hearts a draw would have been enough. With 20 minutes to go, it was 1-1 and we were struggling to create chances. Hearts were making little effort to go forward but defending resolutely.

Then our manager Martin O’Neill (one of Celtic’s most legendary figures) did something unexpected. He switched to a formation similar to that which Nancy had stuck with so steadfastly, with only one recognised centre-back and, on either side of him, two players who are usually full backs. It worked.

The change also involved bringing on a couple of our more attack-minded players. Suddenly we were flooding forward with wave after wave of attack. We were getting big chances, we hit the post, and then, in the 86th minute, we scored from a great move and cutback across the face of goal to make it 2-1.

In injury time, with Hearts desperately searching for an equaliser and their keeper up in our penalty box, the ball broke for our young striker who ran the length of the pitch before passing it into an empty net to put the title beyond doubt.

We played some decent stuff under Nancy. In my opinion his two main errors were putting certain players out of position to fit his formation, and leaving big holes in defence. He seems a nice guy, and I’m sure he had some good managerial qualities that we weren’t able to benefit from in the time he was here. It’s impossible to know, but when we switched formation on Saturday some of the muscle memory from his coaching might just have helped us get the winner.

It seemed fitting that such an insane season should end with O’Neill reverting to the system that we struggled so much with months ago, and it proving to be a masterstroke. O’Neill actually favoured three at the back (though a different version) in his first stint at Celtic, in the Noughties, but he hadn’t played it at all this season until Saturday.

With the points deficit that we had to claw back, and the mammoth winning run we had to go on to be champions in the final minutes of the season, it’s our sweetest title in my lifetime. Cheers to Wilf for the six points he gave us, and thanks for reading if you made it this far. 🍀

I didn't see either of these pieces posted here so I wanted to share them because I think they both have some revealing information

https://tacticsfreezone.ghost.io/rydstrom-out-in-columbus-attrition-crushing-colorado-more-matchday-14/

The biggest takeaway from Doyle's blog is that this wasn't just the team not giving Rydstrom enough time as has been speculated, but that he thought the team was "soft" which is interesting considering how good we recently were. Sure, no two coaches are going to see their squad exactly the same, but how did we get it so wrong hiring this guy that he had such a low opinion of the squad he was taking over?

Bogert's piece was interesting for me because of the quotes from Tall. Usually when a coach is fired there's a lot of talk about getting to work right away on a coaching search to get the right candidate. He doesn't say any of that, and instead talks about backing Courtois and wanting to give him a chance to succeed. He also says if Laurent wasn't here they probably would've waited longer to fire Rydstrom. It feels like the plan is to hope Courtois is good enough that they can eventually just drop the interim tag, and that they're not going to be looking for a new coach. But that begs the question of why didn't they just hire *​him* in the first place?

Finally, the Nancy question comes up.

I recommend reading both of these because they fill in some of the blanks that were being speculated on here yesterday

Down goes Henrik not even getting half the season to implement what he wants.

I mean at the start I could easily see his idea, overload one side of the field, small intricate passing. Give players options nearby. We got punched in the mouth the first two games and I feel he kinda just 100% gave it up.

I get we are coming off the Nancy experience but how was this guy going to succeed in such a short amount of time. Especially when his best player gets injured early. He gets stuck with the Gazdag contract that’s been the biggest waste of a DP spot. The only issue I really had with “roster selection” is we didn’t bring in anyone to help in defense. Which has been a real problem for us honestly the last few years but our offense just had so much production it didn’t matter.

I think he should have got more time. Yeah, the results haven’t been what we wanted, but what do you expect with where the team sits? The man can only work with what he has.

And no. I don’t think “Nancy comes back” and I don’t actually think that fixes the problem with this team.

Some good news on a Monday morning! This is the federation’s official announcement in Portuguese.

An English-language article here: https://heavy.com/sports/soccer/world-cup/cape-verde-squad-fifa-world-cup/

Congrats to Steven!