Columbus Crew SC is a professional soccer team in the United States. SC stands for Soccer Club. The team competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS), the top soccer league in the United States and Canada. The team plays its home games at Lower.com Field in Columbus, Ohio.
The Columbus Crew was one of the founding teams of MLS in 1996. The team made the MLS Cup Playoffs its first four seasons, but failed to advance beyond the conference finals. In 2002, Columbus won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, an annual tournament open to amateur and professional soccer clubs. In 2004, the Crew won the Supporters’ Shield as the MLS team with the best regular season record, but the club was eliminated in the playoffs.
In 2008, the club finally reached the MLS Cup final, defeating the New York Red Bulls for the Crew’s first championship. The Crew also won the Supporters’ Shield in 2008 and again in 2009. The team added SC to its name prior to the 2015 season. Columbus returned to the MLS Cup final in 2015 but lost to the Portland Timbers. In 2020, the Crew defeated the Seattle Sounders to win its second MLS Cup. In 2023, Columbus defeated Los Angeles FC, for its third MLS Cup. FC stands for football club. Soccer is called football in much of the world.
In 2010, 2011, and 2021, Columbus advanced to the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football) Champions League, an annual tournament among that region’s best professional clubs.
