Caleb Porter promised a rotation and rotation is what he delivered. The Columbus Crew head coach elected to make a remarkable eight changes to his lineup for Thursday night’s second leg Round of 16 CONCACAF Champions League game against Real Esteli.
Porter did this for a couple of reasons. The first being, that the Crew holds a 4-0 aggregate series lead over Esteli after the win a week ago in Nicaragua. The second is that the defending MLS Cup champions play the team’s regular season opener on Sunday against last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners, the Philadelphia Union, and would like to have a fresh team heading into that match.