Massive Predictions: The 2023 Crew season

The 2023 Major League Soccer season kicks off on Saturday. It brings with it a new era of Columbus Crew soccer.

This offseason, the Black & Gold made a number of changes, highlighted by hiring a new head coach in Wilfried Nancy, who led CF Montreal to one of the best records in the league last year. Columbus also saw a number of players, including captain Jonathan Mensah, winger/fullback Pedro Santos, midfield Artur and winger Derrick Etienne Jr., depart the club. There were also some additions, most notably left back Jimmy Medranda and forward Christian Ramirez.

The Massive Report staff gathered to give our predictions for the Crew in 2023, which include the team’s Most Valuable Player, the Golden Boot winner, the Defensive Player of the Year, where the Black & Gold will finish in the Eastern Conference and a bold prediction for the season.

Let’s see what our staff thinks about this team.

Caleb Denorme

Team MVP: Cucho Hernandez

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Aidan Morris

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 4th

Bold Prediction for 2023: The Crew will have three players who score double-digit goals. In a season last year when the offense struggled to score goals regularly, Columbus will have a bounce-back year on the offensive side of the pitch. This will be helped by a full season of Cucho Hernandez and Lucas Zelarayan, along with the addition of Christian Ramirez. Those three will be the big names to watch for in terms of goal production, but don’t forget about players like Luis Diaz and Kevin Molino. Diaz had a breakout season last year but it will be interesting to see where he fits into Wilfried Nancy’s system. Molino has had trouble with injuries since coming to Columbus, but he has shown flashes of brilliance when he is healthy. I would look to those five to head the goalscoring production this season, with three of them getting into the double-digit goal tally.

Sameh Fahmi

Team MVP: Lucas Zelarayan

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Aidan Morris

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 5th

Bold Prediction for 2023: The Crew makes it to MLS Cup playoff semifinals. The infusion of new blood, coach, coaching style, tactics, even new on-field could have a great first-year result. Of course, this could all go completely the other direction too, but let’s keep it optimistic here.

Patrick Murphy

Team MVP: Darlington Nagbe

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Milos Degenek

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 4th

Bold Prediction for 2023: The Crew will be the hottest team in the league heading into the MLS Cup playoffs at the year’s end. It could be a rough start to the season for the Black & Gold with a new coach and new (and young) players trying to fit together, as well as three of the first four games on the road. But Wilfried Nancy proves he is among the best coaches in the league and gets things right by midseason and Columbus adds a defensive piece in the summer to get going before putting together a string of results to close out 2023.

Brett Hiltbrand

Team MVP: Cucho Hernandez

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year:

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 2nd

Bold Prediction for 2023: See above. I think most teams outside of the Philadelphia Union are kind of in the same situation. The Union is obviously elite and there’s every reason to think that level of play will continue in 2023 but second place on down is ripe for the taking. I think FC Cincinnati will be good again this year but, while they were excellent at times last season, the Crew took four of six potential points against them. Lucas Zelarayan will be Lucas Zelarayan, hopefully tucking more into the true No. 10 spot because he won’t be asked to be part of the press as much as in seasons past. I think we will see Kevin Molino at full go this season as well. A full season of Cucho Hernandez, a tactically solidified defense and above all else, a revived team spirit puts this Columbus Crew team in a fantastic position to succeed. If you’re not feeling optimistic, you should be.

Drew McDaniel

Team MVP: Cucho Hernandez

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Milos Degenek

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 5th

Bold Prediction for 2023: Wilfred Nancy keeps up his track record of developing young talent, so much so that Columbus has a big offseason sale of one of the young players. Also, the Crew will retain another player that teams make offers for. Also, the Crew will make a deep run in the Leagues Cup tournament but fizzle out in the best-of-three playoff series.

Thomas Costell

Team MVP: Lucas Zelarayan

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernadez

Defensive Player of the Year: Milos Degenek

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 5th

Bold Prediction for 2023: Luis Diaz is second on the team in goals scored.

Grant Miller

Team MVP: Cucho Hernandez

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Eloy Room

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 5th

Bold Prediction for 2023: The Crew make a serious run in the U.S. Open Cup. New coach Wilfred Nancy will trust the Crew 2 alums of last year to carry their weight in the tournament. The confident youths will impress and push the Black & Gold into the late rounds of the tournament.

Austin Mucchetti

Team MVP: Lucas Zelarayan

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Milos Degenek

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 5th

Bold Prediction for 2023: Cucho Hernandez will finish the season with the MLS Golden Boot. In the half season we’ve seen of Hernandez with the Black & Gold so far, he’s shown what he’s capable of. In just 16 games with the Crew, he has scored nine goals and provided three assists. With the addition of Christian Ramirez to the Crew’s attack, the support of Lucas Zelarayán and new head coach Wilfried Nancy set to implement his attacking style onto the team, expect big things from Hernandez in 2023.

Brian Moracz

Team MVP: Lucas Zelarayan

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Milos Degenek

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 5th

Bold Prediction for 2023: Aidan Morris has a career year and is sold next summer to a European side for $3-5 million. Morris is one year older and wiser and should have endless opportunities this season to show his mettle and show that he is capable of positively affecting a game, game in and game out. At a position with limited depth, I think Morris rises to the occasion and earns the Crew a nice payday next summer.

Ryan Schmitt

Team MVP: Aidan Morris

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Aidan Morris

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 6th

Bold Prediction for 2023: My bold prediction is that, by the end of the year, Aidan Morris will have offers coming in from Europe. Possibly Belgium or the Netherlands, maybe a sneaky Chelsea bid as they attempt to buy the world. But the clubs I’d guess are Royal Antwerp or Sparta Rotterdam.

Collin Johnson

Team MVP: Cucho Hernandez

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandes

Defensive Player of the Year: Steven Moriera

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 5th

Bold Prediction for 2023: Cucho Hernandez sets the Columbus Crew single-season goal-scoring record with 28 goals.

Devin Weisbarth

Team MVP: Lucas Zelarayan

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Milos Degenek

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 4th

Bold Prediction for 2023: Columbus improves on the late-game woes that plagued them last season, and they find a way to get to the Eastern Conference Final. Led by Cucho Hernandez and Lucas Zelarayan, the Black & Gold should host a home playoff game, and with the way Nancy likes to play, they should be able to set up and take points on the road.

Nathan Townsend

Team MVP: Lucas Zelarayan

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Milos Degenek

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 3rd

Bold Prediction for 2023: The Crew will make the semifinals of the Leagues Cup. This year marks the first for the newly formatted Leagues Cup pitting MLS sides against Liga MX teams. The Crew has a difficult test with perennial heavyweight Club America coming to Columbus, but with home-field advantage and experience against Liga MX teams, I expect the Crew to make a deep run in this tournament.

Adam Miller

Team MVP: Lucas Zelarayan

Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez

Defensive Player of the Year: Aidan Morris

Finish in the Eastern Conference: 6th

Bold Prediction for 2023: Remember when the Crew signed Kevin Molino? Fresh off of the team’s MLS Cup win, Molino’s addition was supposed to be another addition to the Crew’s attacking arsenal heading into 2021. Fast forward two years and there’s not much to show for it. Molino, who has struggled to stay healthy, has just two goals in 22 appearances for the Black & Gold. However, through Molino’s injuries and struggles, the Crew coaching staff and front office seemed unified that Molino could still play a role to help Columbus, which to me indicates that there’s more to see from Molino. In addition, Wilfried Nancy’s systems in the past has highlighted players in advanced areas moving inside to help support their strikers. This sort of role will be familiar to Molino and similar to the one he played so successfully in Minnesota before moving to Columbus.