Fans Just Waiting for What's Next

Columbus continues her directly downward trajectory after last weekends loss to last place Colorado Rapids. It's hard to describe how bad the situation is for the Crew this year. They are 2nd to last in goals for and have lost 8 of their last 9.

There is something in MLS worse than a bad run of results, however. And that's lack of interest. In my 10 years covering the team, I've never seen it this low. Fans aren't mad, or sad, or anything. There's some hangover from last year, but after picking our heads up after this last embarrassing loss what we see now is an empty void in all directions. Fans not giving a shit also means that casuals are probably completely checked out. As summer approaches, the stadium will look better as far as butts in seats, but it is always that way win, lose or draw.


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PPG	Team	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
2.27	Los Angeles FC	15	10	4	1	36	11	25	34
1.92	Houston Dynamo	12	7	2	3	20	13	7	23
1.86	Seattle Sounders FC	14	7	5	2	24	17	7	26
1.79	LA Galaxy	14	8	1	5	19	17	2	25
1.71	Philadelphia Union	14	7	3	4	24	15	9	24
1.67	DC United	15	7	4	4	19	14	5	25
1.62	Minnesota United	13	6	3	4	21	18	3	21
1.58	New York City FC	12	4	7	1	16	13	3	19
1.54	Atlanta United	13	6	2	5	14	11	3	20
1.50	New York Red Bulls	14	6	3	5	21	16	5	21
1.46	Real Salt Lake	13	6	1	6	20	21	-1	19
1.40	Montreal Impact	15	6	3	6	17	23	-6	21
1.31	Toronto FC	13	5	2	6	23	22	1	17
1.31	San Jose Earthquakes	13	5	2	6	20	24	-4	17
1.29	FC Dallas	14	5	3	6	18	19	-1	18
1.21	Chicago Fire	14	4	5	5	21	18	3	17
1.17	Portland Timbers	12	4	2	6	17	23	-6	14
1.17	Sporting Kansas City	12	3	5	4	23	22	1	14
1.13	Vancouver Whitecaps	15	4	5	6	16	19	-3	17
1.07	Orlando City	14	4	3	7	19	21	-2	15
1.07	Columbus Crew	15	5	1	9	14	22	-8	16
0.87	New England Revolution	15	3	4	8	15	32	-17	13
0.79	FC Cincinnati	14	3	2	9	11	25	-14	11
0.62	Colorado Rapids	13	2	2	9	20	32	-12	8

Crew fans just seem to be waiting on what's next. Nobody really seems to care if Caleb Porter should be canned or not. That's probably the best way to look at it because the team's front office likely does not have the resources to fire and hire right now.

Let's call it a sort of "Crew Purgatory." The team sucks, they are deconstructing the roster at the moment and there's no news on the proposed stadium (that the Haslem's claimed would have shovels in the ground, like, now, when they were blowing smoke up #savethecrew butts last year).

Major League Soccer is specifically designed for this sort of run by a team TO NOT happen. Yet it is happening at the most inopportune time for the team. All they had to be is competent. The lowest bar possible for a team coming off two strong seasons and bringing back most of the same players.

What I get is that there is a lot of rebuilding inside the organization. While I don't think there was any sort of purposeful sabotage by Anthony Precourt and friends leaving town, I do feel it's becoming clear that there isn't a lot of urgency by the new group to fill that hole. The Haslem's are likely busy with NFL goings on and the incredible resurgence of the Browns and Dr. Pete Edwards, self-proclaimed steward of the team, seems to be more a crossbreed Frankie Hejduk and Morgan Hughes on social media than anybody in operations.

Crew fans don't know what's next (besides losing). Another misstep in a decade of missteps. Hopefully, that changes soon.