Darlington Nagbe and Cucho Hernandez seal their places in history! Winners and losers as Columbus Crew hold off reigning-champions LAFC to win 2023 MLS Cup

For those that are new to Nancy's style, there are a few things you must know. First off, he believes in attacking. Secondly, he believes in entertaining. And third, and most importantly, there's almost no scenario where he changes course or abandons those first two points.

You saw that on Saturday. From the opening whistle, the Crew came out and played like a Nancy team. They dominated the ball and attacked. Fullbacks pushed high. Centerbacks moved forward, too, shrinking the field and ensuring that the Crew attack would keep on ticking. Even after taking the lead, Nancy never abandoned those principles as the Crew never stopped.

What a move it was for the Crew to go out and get Nancy, paying CF Montreal a fee to even hire him. It was worth every penny, wasn't it? Nancy brought ideals and personality to Columbus and, in the end, he also brought a trophy.

Throughout the season, Nancy got everything right, tweaking positions and ideals to make the Crew into an attacking force. It all paid off on Saturday as the Crew's match-winner wasn't on the field; he was on the bench.

If this was, in fact, the last we see of Carlos Vela in the black and gold shirt he made famous, it won't feel right. This wasn't the send-off a player like Vela deserved.

The Mexican star was held quiet throughout the match, struggling to really make an impact in what might be his final game for LAFC. His most notable moment was a tackle, one which earned him a yellow card in the second half. That's not what we know from Vela; what we know is goals.

Unfortunately, there were none to be had for him on Saturday. He and LAFC generally struggled to create much of anything, aside from Denis Bouanga's finish and even that took a few tries. Vela mustered just two shots, only one of which actually made it through to goal.

It wasn't the finale he would have dreamt of, and it wasn't the finale that he's made the rest of the world expect with his record-breaking run of MLS goals since his arrival in the league. It was the finale he got, though. Now, all focus turns towards his future, wherever that may be.

Since he signed with the Crew, we've seen Cucho score all sort sof goals. Throughout that time, he's established himself as arguably the league's most dominant pure striker, a presence to be feared at all times.

The goa he scored on Saturday wasn't beautiful. No, it was a penalty kick, the simplest of finishes. It was fitting, though, for a player as good as Cucho to have his name on the scoresheet in a match of this magnitude.

After scoring 15 goals and assisting 11 goals during the regular season, Hernandez scored five more time sin the postseason. The Colombian is an unstoppable force, and it feels like he's just getting started.

The Colombia national team will come calling. Maybe Europe will, too. For now, though, Hernandez is already a Columbus legend at just 24, and he now has his cup-winning moment to prove it.

There's no denying it now: Darlington Nagbe, take your place among the GOATS.

Name your all-time MLS greats: Landon Donovan, Robbie Keane, Sebstian Giovinco, Diego Valeri, Jaime Moreno... whoever. No matter what generation you're from, what era of MLS made you fall in love with the game, you have to include Nagbe among any list discussing the best this league has ever seen.

His career has been build on being the quiet killer. Smooth on the ball and completely unwilling to ever misplace it, Nagbe has now anchored the biggest moments in three different franchise's histories. He how has four championship rings in his collection...only four players have more.

None of those players were like Nagbe. So composed, so smooth, so brilliant... this league has never seen any player quite like him.

It felt incredibly harsh, to be fair. In games of this magnitude, you never want to see a game decided by something so small. His handball did not define the match, but it certainly set the tone. Unfortunately for Diego Palacios, the game's first blow came because of his mishap.

It was a bang-bang call: ball, chest, hand. There was discussion, a review and, ultimately, a decision. Palacios was judged to have handled the ball, awarding the Crew a penalty and, effectively, the lead. In front of this crowd on this occasion? Cucho was never going to miss.

LAFC, from that moment, were up against it. They weren't able to play their game. They weren't able to attack the Crew in the way they wanted. The game tilted massively the second the ball went off Palacio's chest and onto his hand.

It's a stroke of bad luck. There was little Palacios could have done to prevent it. Unfortunately for him, and LAFC, the soccer gods are harsh, and they cursed Palacios in this massive match.

Forget the result for the second, although that obviously adds to it all. For Columbus just to get to this point? It feels like a miracle.

Just six years after the Save the Crew movement began, the Columbus have added two MLS Cups. Their first came back in 2020, a real statement that the club was here to stay. It came, though, in front of just a few thousand fans due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As incredible as that rise was, it wasn't quite one that could truly be enjoyed by everyone.

That was what Saturday was about. It was about packed stands, loud singing, beers pouring. It was about a team and a city celebrating the religion that is soccer together with a trophy on the line. It was about a group of people that thought they were going to lose their team for some time instead celebrating the fact that that team is better than every other one in MLS.

The Save the Crew movement is long gone. This club was saved years ago and has only taken things further and further in the years since. Saturday was a celebration of that, a celebration of MLS' first city once again crowning itself as the best in the league.