On May 20th of 2026 The Columbus Crew defeated New York City FC in the US Open Cup quarterfinals. The win advanced The Crew the farthest they've been in the Open Cup since they lost the final in 2010.
At the time of the win, the World Cup had yet to kick off and the summer transfer window was almost two months from opening. By the time the ball was kicked to start the semifinal game on September 16th The Black & Gold would be a significantly different team.
Just how altered of a team they would be is still a bit of a shock. There was always going to be some out bound transfers, and a healthy amount of retooling, but since the quarterfinal victory The Crew added eight roster players along with permanently signing Andres Herrera. Congruently, of the 16 players who saw the field Columbus that night, five of them would be sold on transfers or loaned out.
The headline moves came at the top of the roster, the DP slots. out went Diego Rossi and Daniel Gazdag and in came Brais Mendez and Santi Rodriguez. MLS teams are judged on how they managed their designated player slots, and I will give the front office their credit, moving on from Gazdag, and getting a substantial amount of money for Rossi and Max Arfsten, that could be flipped for either of the two incoming DP's was a great bit of business, and it puts The Crew in a position where the top end of the roster is dangerous as hell. A front three of Mendez, Rodriguez, and Abou-Ali (when he is healthy) is worth the price of admission.
But, the roster movement was not isolated to only the senior squad. Between the Open Cup fixtures Chase Adams would appear in 8 matches for the senior team before going back down to Crew 2. Home grown signing Owen Presthus would be loaned to Nashville, and Crew 2 stand out Zach Zengue would be loaned to St Louis. (Both players are playing predominantly with their new organizations next pro squads)
It is those that stood out to me the most. At the time of the quarterfinal win The Crew were below the MLS playoff line and had just fired their manager, Henrik Rydstrom who was hired less than six months prior. The interim manager, Laurent Courtois won the MLS Next Pro Championship with Crew 2 in 2022. If there was ever a time to "play the kids" This summer was it.
But the front office had other plans. in came guys like Josef Martinez and Brooks Lennon. MLS Vets who have a track record of success. They would be supplmented by international players Eric Bailly, Gonzalo Tapia, Anass Zaroury, and Lautaro Giaccone.
We won't know just how much that win against New York City set the tone for the summer window, but it is hard not to think the allure of a cup run played a role in just how "win now" the whole window felt.
The mission seemed clear. Stack the roster best we can so that on September 16th we'd come out on top. Youth development be damned we got a trophy to win.
And as the clock ticked down Wednesday night with The Crew fully in control it's hard to argue the window wasn't successful. If they get the job done on October 21st it won't be up for a debate, but...none of this happens in a vacuum. Along the way Columbus has fallen further and further out of playoff contention. Veteran players who seemingly were brought in to help tread water and fight for points in the standings have been less than satisfying.
I'm not sure if a line up with Presthus, Zengue, Adams, and maybe even Kevin Gbamble would have gotten results against The Revs or on the road against DC United, but I'm confident they would have shown more effort than the squad on the field did on those particular nights.
The future competitive windows for this club will be determined by how those particular players grow and improve. If we are making a deep playoff run in 2028 it will be with Chase Adams and Owen Presthus on the field not Josef Martinez and Brooks Lennon.
But an Open Cup victory is right in front of us, and with it a birth in next years CONCACAF Champions Cup. It's been 16 long years of defeats in this tournament, some rather embarrassing. I've begged for this organization to take The Open Cup seriously ever since Seattle lifted the cup on their own field as the stars I grew up loving were defeated. Now they are putting the chips in the middle of the table in persuit of some hardware. I can live with that ambition, but only if it pays off.