Columbus Crew suffer heaviest defeat in six years: what is their biggest defeat in MLS?

Until last night, the Columbus Crew had lost just a handful of games during the 2024 MLS regular season campaign. On Saturday, the defending champions, Concacaf Champions Cup runners-up and recent Leagues Cup winners were thrashed 0-4 by the Seattle Sounders at Lower.com Field.

The Crew suffer biggest regular season defeat since July 2018

It stands as one of the heaviest defeats in franchise history - the last time the Crew lost a regular season game by four goals was six years ago when they were trounced 4-0 away at LA Galaxy.

Interestingly, the defeat came right at the start of the September international break when head coach Wilfried Nancy was without five of his first team regulars.

Five Columbus Crew players out on international duty

Five key Crew players are away with their respective national teams and their absence was noticed. Joint-top goal scorer Cucho Hernandez is with Colombia for 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Peru and Argentina. At the back, Nancy had to reshuffle with both his first and second choice goalkeepers and two right-sided players all unavailable.

Starting keeper Patrick Schulte is with the USMNT for their games against Canada and New Zealand. His deputy, Nicholas Hagen was between the posts for Guatemala’s 1-1 friendly draw with Uruguay on Sunday and will be in contention for CONCACAF Nations League games against Martinique and Costa Rica.

Right-back Steven Moreira joined up with Cape Verde for their AFCON qualifiers against Egypt and Mauritania while wing-back Mo Farsi is also involved in the AFCON qualifiers - he was on the bench for Algeria’s 2-0 win over Equatorial Guinea on Thursday and could make his senior international debut in the next match against Liberia.

Romero sent off on MLS debut

In the end, third choice goalkeeper Abraham Romero started the game in front of a back three comprising Sean Zawadzki, Rudy Camacho and Yevgen Cheberko with Andrés Herrera deployed as an attacking full-back.

Making his MLS debut, Romero managed to keep the Sounders out during the opening 45 minutes but was shown a straight red card two minutes into stoppage-time for bringing down Jordan Morris outside his area. Reduced to 10 men, Sean Zawadzki replaced the Mexican-American keeper but was beaten four times with Albert Rusnák (45′+6′, 67′ and 70′) and Jordan Morris (60′) firing home for the Sounders.

According to Tom Bogert, Columbus Crew requested an emergency consideration from the North American league to bring in a fourth goalkeeper, but received a refusal. The Crew’s alternatives were Belarusian Stanislav Lapkes and Cole Johnson, but neither of them were eligible for Saturday’s game.

The result was the Crew’s biggest defeat since July 2018 and the third time the team has lost to Seattle by a four-goal margin but not quite the largest defeat in franchise history - Toronto put five past the Crew without reply in May 2017, which stands as their most painful loss to date.