The Columbus Crew capped off their 2023 MLS campaign winning the MLS Cup for the third time in their franchise history. Cucho Hernandez and Yaw Yeboah lifted the Crew to a 2-1 win over Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) earlier in the month.

Columbus ended the season finishing in third in the league and Eastern Conference, with a 16-9-9 record earning 57 points. Columbus earned a first round home berth in the playoffs against Atlanta United, defeating the Five-Stripes in three games to take the series 2-1.

The Crew then took down a hot Orlando City side 2-0 in extra time in the Conference semifinals, before defeating in-state rivals FC Cincinnati 3-2 in the Conference Final to host the MLS Cup.

Let’s take a look at Columbus’s historic season.

Goals

The Crew ended their season as the highest scoring team in the regular season, with 67 goals. Columbus also tallied seven goals in CONCACAF Leagues Cup and six in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup while scoring 15 in the postseason. The 15 goals in the postseason are the most in Crew history. Across all competitions, the Crew scored 95 goals.

Between the MLS Regular season and Audi 2023 playoffs, Columbus scored 82, which were the most by an MLS Cup champion in league history, and tied for the fourth-most all-time.

Cucho Hernandez led the way for the Crew in the goal scoring department with 16 goals, beating his personal goal of 15 during the regular season. Hernandez then added five more during the postseason, bringing his total to 21. His five goals in the playoffs make him tied him for third place in Crew history, alongside Kei Kamara. Hernandez was also fourth in the MLS Golden Boot race, behind LAFC forward Denis Bouanga, who claimed the award with 20.

Most of the Club’s goals came between the 31-45 minutes, and the 76-90 minutes, scoring five in each aforementioned interval. Interestingly, Columbus also allowed four goals during the 31-45 minute interval.

Assists

Columbus not only had the most goals in MLS this past season, they also had the most assists in the MLS regular season with 72 assists in 34 matches played. That ranks second in Club history (90).

The Crew ranked first in the MLS for assists per game, averaging 2.12 per game. Columbus also ranked first in both goals and assists per 90 minutes, averaging almost two goals per game and two assists per game in 3,060 minutes played.

Attendance

Columbus ended the season by selling out 17 consecutive home matches, beating the previous best of four matches set in 2022. The Crew played in front of 18 capacity crowds through their 20 home matches, setting a new season-long club record beating the previous best of seven, most recently in 2022. Just three of the sellouts came during Wednesday games with the Crew winning 2-0 vs LA Galaxy (20,192), 3-2 vs Colorado Rapids (20,223), and 3-0 vs Chicago Fire (20,349).

The MLS Cup final saw the Club set a stadium record for attendance, hosting 20,802, ranking it first in the Top-10 highest attended matches at Lower.com Field

Final Thoughts

Columbus had the players to make all of their success this season possible, but it was head coach Wilfried Nancy that told them “impossible is an opinion.” The Crew will definitely have their work cut out for them next year, but for the Crew, it’s a chance to build on what worked. It will be hard to top all of the records Columbus set for the 2023 season, but with the core of the MLS Cup squad returning, Nancy has a chance to to take Columbus back-to-back while tweaking incoming players and getting them adjusted to the style and the League.