Published for Columbus Crew 2 fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ Columbus Crew 2 Fans — Your Capybaras Are Hunting Another Cup!
The first champions in MLS NEXT Pro history are back in the conference semifinals — a Best XI star up front, a quarterfinal win already in the bag, and the East’s top seed waiting on Sunday. Black and gold, loud and proud.
The Club
Columbus Crew 2 — the Capybaras, to everyone who loves them — were announced on December 6, 2021 as one of the 21 inaugural MLS NEXT Pro teams: the reserve side of the Columbus Crew, built to turn academy talent into first-team players. The nickname stuck because the capybara is unbothered, social and quietly unstoppable — and because this team made winning look exactly that easy in the league’s early years.
Home is sacred ground. Crew 2 play at Historic Crew Stadium, 1 Black and Gold Boulevard — opened May 15, 1999 as the first soccer-specific stadium ever built for an MLS team, listed capacity 19,968, and the Crew first team’s home from 1999 to 2021. The site also houses the OhioHealth Performance Center, so the next generation trains in the shadow of the building where Columbus soccer history started.
And what history it is. Crew 2 are the league’s original dynasty: winners of the first MLS NEXT Pro Cup in 2022, beating St. Louis CITY 2 4–1 in the final on October 8, 2022, plus the 2022 regular-season title (16-3-5, 55 points), Eastern Conference playoff titles in 2022 and 2023, and Central Division titles in both years. The 2022 sweep swept the awards too — Laurent Courtois was Coach of the Year, Jacen Russell-Rowe took the Golden Boot and MVP with 21 goals, and Patrick Schulte was Goalkeeper of the Year. They reached the Cup final again in 2023 and a third straight conference final in 2024. No expansion fairy tale here — this is the first name on the trophy.
The shirt matters, so get it right: Crew 2 wear their own kit, not the first team’s. It is a solid yellow adidas shirt with a plain round neck, the Crew shield on the left chest and OhioHealth across the front in black — a design the Capybaras have worn since day one. When you see the yellow shirts with the black print, you are looking at the reserve team’s identity, and the fan-inspired versions below follow that same look.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#31 Gbamblé — Columbus Crew 2 Style Jersey
$59.99
The league’s most productive young forward in yellow: 12 goals, 11 assists, a Best XI place and a first-team contract. The Capybaras’ captain and star — front and back.
Last Season (2025): The Year It Broke
Honesty first, Capys fans: 2025 was a collapse. One season after a third straight Eastern Conference Final, Crew 2 finished 15th in the East — five wins, 17 losses and six ties, 40 goals scored, a miserable 64 conceded and just 22 points. No playoffs. For the league’s model reserve side, it was a genuine shock.
And yet the pieces were there. Chase Adams, a teenager, top-scored with 10 goals. Kevin Gbamblé arrived from Ivory Coast in April and produced six goals and three assists in just 14 appearances. Nicolás Rincón added four goals and seven assists. The club exercised its 2026 options on Gbamblé and Rincón while moving on from six others — and, crucially, the pathway never stopped working: four Crew 2 players earned Columbus Crew first-team contracts off the back of that season. The dynasty had a bad year. It did not lose its purpose.
Best Players Right Now
Kevin Gbamblé — #31, forward. The star of the whole league, full stop. The Ivorian winger produced 12 goals and 11 assists in 2026 — 23 goal contributions, tied for the most in MLS NEXT Pro — and became only the third player in league history with double-digit goals AND double-digit assists in one season. Named to the MLS NEXT Pro Best XI on October 8, he signed a Columbus Crew first-team contract on October 12 and then captained Crew 2 to its quarterfinal win. This is his team.
Chase Adams — #46, forward. The academy’s scoring machine from Naperville, Illinois. Nine goals in 2024, 10 in 2025, and 10 more with three assists in 2026 — back-to-back double-figure seasons while still a teenager. He signed his own first-team contract in January 2026, and his U.S. U-17 record (11 goals in five caps) tells you the ceiling is nowhere in sight.
Nicolás Rincón — #30, midfielder. The two-way engine who scored the biggest goal of the season: the quarterfinal winner against New England on October 17, breaking through three defenders just before halftime. Four goals and seven assists in 2025, 26 appearances and four assists in 2026 — plus the 89th-minute assist for the equalizer that helped seal the playoff berth in September.
Brent Adu-Gyamfi — #42, forward. Five assists in 25 appearances in 2026, and the man who opened the scoring in the playoff quarterfinal, converting his own rebound after 12 minutes. When Crew 2 need a spark in the final third, he keeps providing it.
Jamil Danjaji — #71, forward. A 16-year-old academy product who finished as Crew 2’s third-highest scorer of 2026 with four goals — including the 89th-minute equalizer against New England in September that kept the playoff push on track. Remember the name.
Luke Pruter — #54, goalkeeper. The last line of a defense that tightened when it mattered: his two late saves sealed the 2–1 quarterfinal win over New England. Playoff runs are built on moments like those.
Star Spotlight
October 8, 2026 — a Best XI season for the history books. Gbamblé’s 12-and-11 line is the kind of season this league was invented to produce: a teenager from Adzopé, signed from Ivoire Académie in April 2025, standing alongside the league’s very best by his second year. Only two players before him had ever hit double figures in goals and assists in a single MLS NEXT Pro season.
October 12, 2026 — the pathway pays out again. Five days before the quarterfinal, Columbus announced Gbamblé’s first-team contract, running through June 2029 with options beyond. He became the 12th Crew 2 player ever to earn that climb — having already debuted for the first team in the U.S. Open Cup and the Leagues Cup this year. The Capybaras exist to make exactly this phone call.
October 17, 2026 — the captain delivers. Wearing the armband, Gbamblé led a Crew 2 side without a head coach — Federico Higuaín was dismissed on September 22, and the technical staff has run the team since — to a 2–1 quarterfinal win over New England at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field. Adu-Gyamfi struck early, Rincón won it before halftime, Pruter slammed the door late. The club’s all-time postseason record now reads 8-2-0. Dynasty behavior, even in a rebuild year.
🔥 More Fan Favorites
More Capybaras stars, same black and gold.
This Season (2026): The Bounce-Back
From 15th to a conference semifinal in twelve months. Crew 2 finished fourth in the Eastern Conference with 48 points — 49 goals scored, 43 conceded — level on points with New England and Atlanta in the East’s 3-to-5 seed cluster and seeded No. 4 for the playoffs. Alongside Philadelphia Union II, they are one of only two Eastern teams to reach the MLS NEXT Pro Playoffs in four different seasons. The berth was sealed by a 1–1 draw with New England in mid-September, Danjaji’s late equalizer assisted by Rincón.
The run-in was anything but calm: defeats at Philadelphia and Toronto in early September, draws with New England and Carolina Core to close the regular season (Crew 2 took the Decision Day shootout 5–4), and the head coach gone on September 22. So of course this group went and won its quarterfinal anyway — 2–1 over New England on October 17, at the first team’s ScottsMiracle-Gro Field. Now comes the hardest test in the East: the No. 1 seed, on the road, in a semifinal the top seed chose. More on that below.
🖤 Love the Capybaras? Wear it. Shop Fan Sportswear at Toxlay Sports →
Mark Your Calendar
Sunday, October 25, 2026 — at Crown Legacy FC, Sportsplex at Matthews (7:00 p.m. ET). The Eastern Conference Semifinal. Crown Legacy, the East’s No. 1 seed, used the league’s Pick-Your-Opponent format to hand-pick Crew 2 — the Capybaras know exactly what that says, and exactly how to answer it.
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — Eastern Conference Final. Win on Sunday and Crew 2 face the winner of the other semifinal — Chattanooga FC vs. CT United FC at Finley Stadium — with a place in the Cup final on the line. The higher remaining seed hosts.
November 6–8, 2026 — MLS NEXT Pro Cup. One match for the trophy, hosted by the finalist with the most regular-season points. Crew 2 lifted the first Cup ever played in 2022; a second star is three wins away. Every playoff match, and the Cup, streams live on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. FC Cincinnati 2 — “Heck Is Plausible.” The NEXT Pro edition of the parents’ Hell Is Real derby, given the affiliates’ own parody name, and the 2026 trilogy lived up to it: Crew 2 won the opener 2–0 on March 21, Cincinnati took the return 2–1 on May 10, and Columbus won the decider 1–0 away on June 14. One hundred miles of I-71, zero affection, bragging rights to the Capys for another year.
2. New England Revolution II — the playoff measuring stick. The October 17 quarterfinal was the 15th all-time meeting between these two, and Crew 2 keep owning the big ones: Gibran Rayo’s stoppage-time winner settled the 2023 Eastern Conference Final, and the 2026 series ran win (2–1 in April), draw (2–2 in July, shootout to Columbus), draw (1–1 in September) — then the quarterfinal, 2–1 to the Capybaras again. Four meetings this year, and New England still could not beat them when it counted.
3. St. Louis CITY 2 — the first final. No long history, just permanent bragging rights: on October 8, 2022, Crew 2 beat CITY 2 4–1 to lift the first MLS NEXT Pro Cup ever played. Every final since has chased that night. And the newest entry in the wars has a date: Crown Legacy FC, the top seed who chose Columbus for Sunday’s semifinal. Picked, not feared.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Columbus Crew 2, and where do they play?
Columbus Crew 2 — nicknamed the Capybaras — are the reserve team of the Columbus Crew, founded on December 6, 2021 as one of MLS NEXT Pro’s inaugural clubs. They play at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, the first soccer-specific stadium built for an MLS team, with a listed capacity of 19,968; their October 17, 2026 playoff quarterfinal was held at the first team’s ScottsMiracle-Gro Field.
Who is Columbus Crew 2’s best player?
Forward Kevin Gbamblé, the No. 31. In 2026 he posted 12 goals and 11 assists — 23 goal contributions, tied for the league’s best — was named to the MLS NEXT Pro Best XI, and on October 12, 2026 signed a Columbus Crew first-team contract, becoming the 12th Crew 2 player to earn one. He captained the side in its 2026 quarterfinal win over New England.
What trophies has Columbus Crew 2 won?
Crew 2 won the first MLS NEXT Pro Cup in 2022, beating St. Louis CITY 2 4–1 in the final, plus the 2022 regular-season title, Eastern Conference playoff titles in 2022 and 2023, and Central Division titles in 2022 and 2023. They lost the 2023 Cup final 3–1 to Austin FC II and reached a third straight Eastern Conference Final in 2024.
How can I watch Columbus Crew 2 in the 2026 playoffs?
Every 2026 MLS NEXT Pro playoff match, and the MLS NEXT Pro Cup, airs live on OneFootball.com and MLSNEXTPro.com. Crew 2’s Eastern Conference Semifinal is Sunday, October 25, 2026, away at Crown Legacy FC — 7:00 p.m. ET at the Sportsplex at Matthews. Tickets and club coverage are available via the Columbus Crew’s official site, columbuscrew.com.
⚽ Columbus Crew 2 Fan Shop
The full Capybaras trio — Gbamblé, Adams and Rincón in black and gold, fan-inspired designs.
Sources & official links: Columbus Crew official site · MLS NEXT Pro official site · MLS NEXT Pro conference semifinals
Black and gold, unbothered and unbeaten when it counts — go get your second star, Capybaras.
