After giving fans a tease of sorts with the release of each team’s season openers a few weeks ago, Major League Soccer finally got to completing the task on Wednesday, unveiling the entire 2015 schedule for the league’s historic 20th season. Two new franchises, Orlando City SC and New York City FC, begin play while sadly Chivas USA is no longer with us.
From a geographical standpoint, these additions to the league played a small role in the outlook for the schedule since they necessitated a move by Sporting Kansas City and the Houston Dynamo to the Western Conference. Those two teams can expect to spend a lot more time in the Mountain and Pacific time zones on road trips than they did before.
Much like the league itself, Columbus Crew SC will be entering 2015 sporting a new logo and overall brand identity. Their slate of contests reveal a variety of challenges for a team that will be searching for consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since the 2009 season. The Black and Gold have certainly been busy in the offseason shoring up the side for a continuation of the success from 2014.
Their talented trio of attacking midfielders, Ethan Finlay, Justin Meram and Federico Higuain were signed to new deals, while a bevy of new players joined the team from European clubs including Kei Kamara, Mohammed Saeid, and Kristinn Steindórsson. I’m also interested to see how much we see this season from U.S. youth national team regulars Romain Gall and Ben Swanson (Crew SC’s newest Homegrown signing).
But I digress. Let’s discuss the schedule itself. Before I get into the five games I think are the most intriguing, I should probably make some remarks about the overall structure of the 2015 slate for Crew SC:
- The five Eastern Conference teams they will see three times in the regular season include Trillium Cup rival Toronto FC, the New York Red Bulls, Orlando City, Philadelphia Union and D.C. United.
- It won’t be until way late in the season, September 26th to be exact, when they will have faced every team in the league as the Portland Timbers come to Crew Stadium that weekend.
- Their match-up with New York City FC is a home-and-home of sorts, with Crew SC hosting a mid-week tie August 19th followed by the Black and Gold’s first ever foray into Yankee Stadium ten days later. More on the recent intrigue added to these games later.
- For the second straight season, the schedule isn’t very homey down the stretch with four of Crew SC’s final six matches taking place away from the friendly confines.
Now, about those five matches. Let’s break them down. I’m going to do this chronologically as opposed to doing it by order of importance. I think I’ll leave it to the reader to surmise which ones have greater entertainment value than others.
5 Must-See Games for Columbus Crew SC in 2015
Saturday, April 11th, 3 pm ET: at New England Revolution
The fifth game of the 2015 campaign is Crew SC’s first meeting with the team that knocked them out of the Eastern Conference semifinals in fairly emphatic fashion last year en route to the MLS Cup final. Though they would eventually lose to the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Revs will be looking to build on a season where things really came together in the wake of the Jermaine Jones signing. It should be a scary thought to teams in the East how good New England could potentially be with Jones there for the whole season.
The Revs only appear on the schedule once more after this, with Crew SC hosting them on June 24th. The past two seasons saw these sides clash three times. The Black and Gold fared pretty well in the regular season last year against New England, winning two and dropping one while 2013 was not as successful with the Revs taking all three contests.
Saturday, May 30th, 7:30 pm ET: at Orlando City SC
The first ever game between these two sides actually occurs a month earlier at Crew Stadium one week after Crew SC faces New England on April 18th. Why am I featuring this second meeting, you wonder? Maybe it’s just me but I have a fascination with road trips to venues never before ventured to, which is what Crew SC will face when they take on OCSC at the Florida Citrus Bowl in late May. From a personal standpoint I know that stadium quite well soccer-wise, having lived in Orlando earlier in my life and having been in the crowd for a few World Cup matches that were played there in 1994.
The Lions actually selected two Crew SC players in the expansion draft, forward Jairo Arrieta and defender Eric Gehrig. Gehrig was later traded to Chicago for the Fire’s second round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft. Arrieta’s option wasn’t picked up by Columbus at the conclusion of last season so it will be interesting to see if he gets on the field in this game to try and make them regret that move with a goal from the Costa Rican striker who netted 17 for Crew SC in his three seasons with the team.
Saturday, June 13th, 7:30 pm ET: vs. Los Angeles Galaxy
Some say that the Black and Gold’s run to the playoffs in 2014 began with a 4-1 home drubbing of eventual MLS Cup champions Los Angeles in Landon Donovan’s final game at the stadium he and the USMNT used to “Dos A Cero” Mexico multiple times over the course of his illustrious career. In the final game for Crew SC before summer officially begins, they welcome that same team to Crew Stadium for the only meeting of 2015 between the two sides.
Donovan’s retirement left a designated player slot open for the Galaxy and in recent days it was announced they found the player to fill it. English legend Steven Gerrard, who’s had a distinguished career with Liverpool dating back to 1998, will be making his way to Los Angeles for 2015. His presence in Columbus for this game should pretty much guarantee a packed house.
Saturday, July 4th, 7:30 pm ET: vs. New York Red Bulls
The schedule makers really did the Black and Gold a big favor here by having the Red Bulls come to Crew Stadium for an Independence Day clash. A new head coach in Jesse Marsch will be strolling the sidelines for RBNY this season as the club fired Mike Petke on Tuesday. Marsch last coached the Montreal Impact in 2012 and had also worked as an assistant with the United States national team.
Much like the Galaxy, the Red Bulls have an empty designated player spot given the retirement of Thierry Henry. The latest banter off the rumor-mill has the team in discussions with U.S. midfielder Sacha Kljestan who has played for Anderlecht in the Belgian top flight since 2010.
Much like what will take place in 2015, these two clubs have faced each other three times the past two seasons with each team notching a win, loss and draw in both 2013 and 2014.
Wednesday, August 19th , 7:30 pm ET & Saturday, August 29th, time TBD: New York City FC
Maybe I’m kind of cheating here for including two games, but given the nature of the opponent, the venue Crew SC will be playing in for the road tie, and a certain player whose presence will add a hint of spiciness to the fixture. New York City FC comes to Columbus for the first time ever for a midweek match-up in mid-August, followed by a return tie at venerable Yankee Stadium ten days later.
The level of intrigue between these two teams became that much more pronounced when rumors began to surface that star USMNT midfielder Mix Diskerud was on the verge of signing with NYCFC. It was Diskerud who was supposedly on Crew SC’s radar last season as a potential allocation ranking move given they had the top spot at the time. In the end, the deal to send him to Columbus fell through in quite bizarre fashion as his father supposedly played a role in nixing the transaction.
One thing’s for sure, a Diskerud transfer would soften the blow of sorts for those still seething over the way the whole Frank Lampard saga appears to have played out for NYCFC.
Are there any games I missed? Do you think there are some other big matches for the Black and Gold in 2015? Feel free to hit me up on Twitter if you want to discuss this and everything Crew SC.
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