Head coach Wilfried Nancy didn’t mince words following the Columbus Crew’s 5-1 loss to Inter Miami CF on Saturday night, calling the match a disappointing performance.
“They were better than us today,” Nancy said of Miami. “I cannot throw what happened in the past because this season we've been good, but today, we were not good – simple as that. Not a good game. First time that we have a bad game this season. It comes at the end of a cycle with a lot of games and so on, yes, but not a good performance.”
Trailing 3-0 at halftime, the Crew’s lone bright spot in South Florida came in the 58th minute when Cesar Ruvalcaba scored his first-ever MLS goal via a Dylan Chambost corner kick. The goal arrived in the rookie’s seventh appearance this season.
The Crew have officially hit the halfway point in the 2025 MLS regular season, sitting fifth in the Eastern Conference standings with 28 points from 17 matches played.
Given the Crew’s club-record unbeaten start to the season, Mohamed Farsi said it’s not time to panic – just time to get back to work.
“We know how to play,” Farsi said. “We just have to fix a couple of things. It’s the first time I think in three seasons that we had a defeat like that happen. Yeah, it's the first time. It's not like we’re losing every weekend like that. It's not the time to panic.”
The timing isn’t ideal, though. The side now has a two-week break before hosting Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Lower.com Field on June 14.
“When there is a break like this, this is the last game of the cycle so I don't want a break. I want to go back and to work,” Nancy said. “At the same time, they need a break and everybody needs a break. That's why we're going to take the time to analyze this game. It won't be difficult to analyze this game because we got punished on the same situation, I would say. At the same time, I think that, yes, we haven't won, but the performances were good.
“After that, we conceded more goals than usually. Today, that was the case. Usually, we are good on that. This is time to rest. We have to, after that, come back on Wednesday and go back to work. When we win or when we lose, this is the same. Now, we need to go back and work with that.”
