Columbus Crew: If nothing else, be excited

The Columbus Crew are starting a new era. It is uncertain, unfounded and unpredictable. But above all else, it is thoroughly enthralling.

Change is not always a good thing. It can be detrimental. It can be damaging, imposing, unwanted. But it also offers the chance for something new to sprout, to grow, to potentially blossom and bloom. It presents the opportunity to flourish. Never has then been truer than in Columbus, Ohio.

The Columbus Crew are riding a wave of pertinacious joy.  The #SaveTheCrew movement won. New owners came in, led by the Haslams, and Gregg Berhalter’s appointment as the U.S. Men’s National Team head coach opened up the chance to completely start afresh. That chance was duly snatched by the new ownership.

The Columbus Crew will be led forward by an impressive, proven and exciting duo: Tim Bezbatchenko was offered a return home as club president, prising him away from Toronto FC, where he turned perennial also-rans into arguably the best team MLS has ever seen; the LA Galaxy were beaten to former Portland Timbers coach Caleb Porter, a manager renowned for his philosophies and tactical style.

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Speaking this week at the MLS Combine, Bezbatchenko’s excitement for what was to come was impossible to hide:

"“There’s an ability to do something that’s miraculous with a fanbase that wasn’t up there with the top half of the league before, from what I’ve seen. No one knows how a new team’s going to reinvent the wheel. No one really saw Kansas City coming, and all of a sudden, they flipped that. No one really saw Seattle and Portland, and they did it in their own way. And then I think Toronto, we got Designated Players in their prime from top teams around the world, no one had done that. Atlanta goes and gets younger players and they build out a stadium and they’re doing it the way they’re doing it. I think that’s sort of a what’s happening here at the present moment. That excites people, but for us, it’s an opportunity to do something different. And I think the Genesis is going to be in this Save the Crew movement and the fans and the community.”"

This really is a Genesis for the Crew.

Will the Bezbatchenko-Porter era be a successful one? It is impossible to say. As is always the case with change; no one knows if it will be good or bad until it happens and the full effects are played out. And it would be easy for a fan base that just had to fight tooth and nail to keep it in the city that it should be to be cautious, a little apprehensive of this new era.

But this an exciting time for the Crew. Sometimes, the best part about sports is the uncertainty, the drama, the hope of greatness but the acknowledgement that it may not actually come to fruition. That is where Columbus are right now: anticipating success, but knowing that it does not grow freely on trees.

Porter and Bezbatchenko are two individuals that fans should be willing to place their trust in. Both have won MLS Cups, both are relatively young, bright individuals, both bring with them experience of MLS, and successful experience at that. If there is a President-Head Coach pair that you would happily trust, it is this one.

For the Crew, the future seems bright. It is time to get excited about this new era. Change has come, and it is oh so sweet for the Columbus faithful.