There's a growing realization that good isn't good enough as the big picture of the 2016 Crew SC season gets a little too hard to ignore. Columbus have been shuffling, zombie-like, through the early part of the season, then the Kei Kamara/Federico Higuain blowup and subsequent trade pulled the focus off the field and to the problems, real or imagined, in the locker room. The story stopped being about underperformance on the field and became about disfunction off it.
With that distraction, the big picture was obscured. In isolation, this team has gotten good results. After the trade, Crew SC tied the best team in MLS, the Colorado Rapids.