It’s in the title, folks. Every week during the MLS season, Backheeled is here to dive into the biggest Winners and Losers from around the league. Let’s get right to it.
Loser: Henrik Rydstrom
The Henrik Rydstrom era ended as quickly as it began, really.
14 games into his MLS head coaching career, the Swede was fired by the Columbus Crew. The news dropped on Sunday afternoon, one day after the Crew played to a disappointing 1-1 draw with the current Wooden Spoon leaders, the Philadelphia Union. That draw brought Columbus points total to 13, good for an average of 0.93 per game (fourth-worst in MLS).
“We are confident that we have the talent on our roster to consistently compete for championships, and we believe this change best positions us to accomplish that goal with the number of matches we have left this season,” chief soccer officer Issa Tall said.
The Crew’s failings so far this season rest, in part, on Rydstrom. There’s been an overabundance of tactical chopping and changing: the former Malmo manager began the year in a Wilfried Nancy-esque back three before quickly shifting into a back four. Early on this year, Diego Rossi was marooned on the right side of midfield and tasked with defending deep in a 4-4-2 block before being moved back into the forward line. Steven Moreira, Max Arfsten, Sean Zawadski, Mo Farsi, and, well, just about everybody who took a giant leap under Nancy has been handed a different role in 2026.
And the result? Both an actual and an expected goal differential that’s noticeably lower than last year. Rydstrom, to his credit, managed to improve Columbus’ leaky defense. But the attack — and the results — cratered in the process.
