{"id":3043,"date":"2016-12-30T19:08:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T00:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsoccer.com\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2016-12-31T04:23:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T09:23:04","slug":"report-crew-sc-sign-jonathan-mensah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2016\/12\/30\/report-crew-sc-sign-jonathan-mensah\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Columbus Crew SC to Sign Defender Jonathan Mensah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/columbuscrewsc.com\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Columbus Crew SC<\/strong><\/a> continues to bolster their back line during the off-season.<\/p>\n<p>The club is reportedly close to signing defender <strong>Jonathan Mensah<\/strong>, according to ESPN&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/taylortwellman\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Taylor Twellman<\/strong><\/a>. Mensah spent the 2016 season with FC Anzhi Makhachkala of the Russian Premier League. He had signed a 2.5 year contract with the team in February.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hearing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/columbuscrewsc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ColumbusCrewSC<\/a> will be announcing Jonathan Mensah as their new signing. 26yr old, 2x World Cup defender \ud83d\udc4c\ud83c\udffc\ud83d\udc4c\ud83c\udffc\ud83d\udc4c\ud83c\udffc. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MLS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MLS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TaylorTwellman\/status\/814972844207669248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 30, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Report: Columbus Crew SC to Sign Defender Jonathan Mensah<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The move, if confirmed, is aimed at solidifying a defense that struggled last season. The Black and Gold conceded 58 goals in 2016 which was tied for the second worst total in MLS. It played significant role in the club missing the playoffs one year after appearing in MLS Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Injuries and departures also have Columbus fairly short-handed heading into 2017. <a href=\"http:\/\/mlssoccer.com\/players\/michael-parkhurst\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Michael Parkhurst<\/strong><\/a>, who had been team captain during his three years with Crew SC, signed with Atlanta United on December 11th. Eight days later, the club announced that <a href=\"http:\/\/mlssoccer.com\/players\/gaston-sauro\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Gaston Sauro<\/strong><\/a> will be forced to miss all of 2017 due to multiple knee surgeries.<\/p>\n<p>Mensah brings extensive experience at international level. He\u00a0has 36 caps with the Ghanaian national team and has appeared in the previous two World Cups. In 2015, he played every minute of Ghana&#8217;s Africa Cup of Nations campaign. The Black Stars made it all the way to the final, losing to Cote d&#8217;Ivoire in penalty kicks.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old is expected to take up a designated player spot. Crew SC investor\/operator <strong>Anthony Precourt<\/strong> hinted at a high-priced acquisition earlier in the week. If so, he&#8217;ll be the second DP on the team, joining <a href=\"http:\/\/mlssoccer.com\/players\/federico-higuain\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Federico Higuain<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I anticipate <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/columbuscrewsc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@ColumbusCrewSC<\/a> announcing DP2 signing next week&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/crewsc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#crewsc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anthony Precourt (@APrecourt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/APrecourt\/status\/814113368315457540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">December 28, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Thus far, Crew SC&#8217;s primary acquisitions\u00a0ahead of the 2017 season have focused on the back line. The Black and Gold brought in Finnish left back Jukka Raitala on December 23rd. They also signed academy product and collegiate standout Alex Crognale to a Homegrown contract.\u00a0In addition, the club acquired Josh Williams in the second phase of the MLS Re-Entry Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Crew SC&#8217;s preseason begins with a camp in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil from January 23rd to February 9th. The team returns to Columbus for a short camp at SuperKick in Powell, OH before\u00a0heading to Charleston, SC for the Carolina Challenge Cup. MLS Cup champion Seattle Sounders, expansion side Atlanta United FC and the Charleston Battery of USL will also take part.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/463001132\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.498316% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/463001132?et=FNcb7DStTShKUrsvVXvAQQ&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=n4MsUajGaW1Av3tOx7-6Ua1xTL4V1yEAsrM8I9q1WT8=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"395\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Columbus Crew SC is close to signing Ghanaian defender Jonathan Mensah according to a report from ESPN&#8217;s Taylor Twellman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":742,"featured_media":3046,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,119,3],"tags":[714,245,129,712,57,713],"class_list":["post-3043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crew","category-mls","category-news","tag-anzhi-makhachkala","tag-columbus-crew-sc","tag-fifa","tag-jonathan-mensah","tag-mls","tag-russian-premier-league"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}