Time to train provides boost for the Crew heading into MLS Cup playoffs

Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty ImagesThe 2020 Major League Soccer season was unlike any other in the league’s history. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the season featured a four-month pause, an unprecedented midseason tournament in Orlando followed by a return to home markets that was done in phases.

Because of the change in schedule, games had to be fit in where they could. For the Columbus Crew and other teams in MLS, that meant playing games nearly every four days, rarely getting the six, seven or eight days to prepare for a match that other seasons typically provide.

But the Crew navigated those rough waters and qualified for the MLS Cup playoffs. As the third seed in the Eastern Conference,…