{"id":6095,"date":"2026-01-01T20:30:54","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/new-crew-coach-brings-championship-experience\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T20:30:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:30:54","slug":"new-crew-coach-brings-championship-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/new-crew-coach-brings-championship-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"New Crew coach brings championship experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\"w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/16281859.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/16281859.jpg\" alt=\"MLS: Chicago Fire at Columbus Crew SC\" class=\"w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">Jun 19, 2021; Columbus, Ohio, USA; A general view of a game ball before a match between the Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire in the final game at Historic Crew Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>New Columbus Crew head coach Henrik Rydstrom brings championship experience to a team in transition.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-2\">\n<p>Rydstrom was hired Wednesday to replace former MLS Coach of the Year and MLS Cup champion Wilfried Nancy, who departed on Dec. 3 to coach Scotland&#8217;s Celtic FC.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>A 49-year-old Swede, Rydstrom inherits a club that also is replacing legendary captain Darlington Nagbe, a four-time MLS Cup champion who retired after the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>Rydstrom most recently coached at Malmo FF, leading the club to two straight Swedish league titles (2023, 2024) and the 2023-24 Swedish Cup.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-5\">\n<p>Following a 24-year professional playing career, Rydstrom also has managed IK Sirius (2019-20) and Kalmar FF (2021-22) in his home country.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>&#8220;Henrik has proven his leadership ability throughout an established coaching and playing career, and we collectively share a vision for how we can continue to advance and evolve the club&#8217;s dynamic style of play,&#8221; said Crew general manager Issa Tall.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-7\">\n<p>&#8220;During the head coaching search, we prioritized candidates&#8217; personalities and care for their club as a whole, in addition to their coaching accolades. Henrik fully embodies these traits as the Crew&#8217;s head coach, and we&#8217;re eager to begin the 2026 season together with our long-standing goal of consistently contending for championships in Columbus.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-8\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome to Columbus, Coach Rydstr\u00f6m ????<\/p>\n<p>The Columbus Crew?announced?today?that Henrik?Rydstr\u00f6m??has been named the ninth full-time head coach in Club history.<\/p>\n<p>??: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RwxVS2NTEY\">https:\/\/t.co\/RwxVS2NTEY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kj6xQRkGhf\">pic.twitter.com\/kj6xQRkGhf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Crew (@ColumbusCrew) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ColumbusCrew\/status\/2006462877360894441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 31, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-9\">\n<p>Rydstrom will be joined by assistant coach Theodor Olsson and first-team analyst Mak Pakhei. Goalkeeper coach Phil Boerger and head of video and data analysis Marc O&#8217;Neill will continue in their roles with the Crew.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p>&#8220;After every meeting with Crew leadership, the feeling continued to grow that this club is special and something that you want to be part of,&#8221; Rydstrom said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-11\">\n<p>&#8220;As a coach, you love the Crew&#8217;s playing style and how the players enjoy it, the focus on hard work and the club&#8217;s passionate supporters. Our goal is to continue to build upon the team&#8217;s impressive success and attacking style while combining the desire to win with challenging ourselves every day to improve and to create joy for the team and supporters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-12\">\n<p>Columbus opens the Rydstrom era in the 2026 MLS season opener on Feb. 21 against the visiting Portland Timbers.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-13\">\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/new-crew-coach-brings-championship-experience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jun 19, 2021; Columbus, Ohio, USA; A general view of a game ball before a match between the Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire in the final game at Historic Crew Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Greg Bartram-Imagn Images New Columbus Crew head coach Henrik Rydstrom brings championship experience to a team in transition. Rydstrom was hired Wednesday [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}