The last time Wil Trapp played in a competitive match for the Columbus Crew was on October 6, 2019, in a 1-0 loss to Toronto FC, concluding a disappointing first season under head coach Caleb Porter, during which the team finished seven points back of an MLS Cup playoff spot.

In January 2020, the midfielder was traded to Inter Miami, where he played for one year before signing for Minnesota United prior to the 2021 season. Trapp watched from afar as the Crew, with many of his former teammates still on the roster, won the 2020 MLS Cup.

The fact that Trapp, who grew up in a Columbus suburb and signed his first professional contract with the Black & Gold when he was 19 years old, never got to lift the MLS Cup for his hometown team is something that still bothers him.

“I would have preferred leaving the nest came after winning a championship,” Trapp told Massive Report this week. “The ending was a little weird, right? I would have loved to have a proper sendoff at the stadium with the colors, but that’s just the way it works, right? It certainly leaves something wanting, but at the same time, professional sports, you don’t get to write the storylines. It just is what it is.”

Due to the COVID year in 2020 and then Trapp’s move to Minnesota and the Western Conference, he has only played against the Crew once in a friendly before the 2021 season. Other than returning home in the offseason to visit, he has not been back to Columbus.

That changes on Friday night when the Loons come to Lower.com Field to face the Black & Gold in the Leagues Cup Round of 32. It’s a game that holds significance not just for Trapp but for Minnesota as well.

“It’s really exciting for me,” Trapp said while speaking to the media on Thursday prior to the match. “Obviously it’s been four years since I’ve been here. Now in the new stadium. A game that matters, not that a regular MLS game if we were to go there and play didn’t matter. But when there’s a win on the line to move forward in a tournament, I think it just adds some stakes to it and that’s exciting. I’m very, very excited for the game.”

Trapp spent the first seven seasons of his now 11-year professional career with the Crew. He made his debut as a starter in July 2013 and went on to appear 185 times, only coming off the bench on six occasions, for the Black & Gold. He became the first Homegrown player in MLS history to wear the captain’s armband, deputizing for Michael Parkhurst in 2014 before he took over the role in 2017.

Over the course of his time playing for Columbus, Trapp experienced a lot. On the field, he was a part of some of the best Crew teams in club history under head coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter. He had to lead the club through possible relocation and was as supportive as a player could be of the Save The Crew movement.

“There were some silly things that happened,” Trapp said with a laugh. “The scoreboard caught on fire, and the team almost left. All that chaos.”

Going back to Trapp’s disappointment in never winning an MLS Cup in black and gold, there was an opportunity. Columbus fans will need no reminding of how the 2015 season ended.

Despite hosting the MLS Cup Final against the Portland Timbers, the Crew lost 2-1 at Historic Crew Stadium. The visitors scored just seconds into the match following a mistake by goalkeeper Steve Clark. The Timbers got their second goal six minutes later after a controversial play near the sideline was not called out of bounds for a throw-in in the build-up to the goal. A Kei Kamara goal 18 minutes into the match gave the Black & Gold hope, but the home side wasn’t able to equalize despite more than 60 percent possession.

“Damn,” was Trapp’s response when asked about that game.

“It’s funny because you look at how that Portland team is perceived now and  you’re like, ‘Oh man!’ I’m not sour grapesing it but… Coming into it, we felt very confident, and outside of a couple mistakes, we felt like this is a game we could have won. And the reality is, football rarely goes the way you want. They were a great team and they deserved to win in the end. So you look at it now and it’s certainly still one that’s disappointing but you move past it.”

While that loss certainly still affects Trapp when it is mentioned, it is not the first thing he thinks about when reflecting on his time with Columbus. For the now-30-year-old, it’s about the relationships he formed during his formative years and the experiences he shared with all the people involved with the Crew during his tenure.

“It’s always funny,” Trapp said. “It’s a short career; it really is in terms of actual time. But thinking back to my rookie year, Chad Marshall, Danny O’Rourke, these guys. And then Gregg’s first year and the building blocks of how we bought into so hard something unique and fun and amazing. Guys like Eric Gehrig and Josh (Williams) and Justin (Meram) and Hector (Jimenez) and Ethan (Finlay) and Aaron Schoenfeld and Steve Clark. Like, man. Michael Parkhurst. Just people that you shared amazing times with. Pipa (Fedrico Higuain), of course. These are people that I would consider some of my best friends. And when I reflect back on times in Columbus, we were able to build amazing friendships and camaraderie inside of something we cared deeply about, which is the game. It felt like we were doing something special.”

Of the names Trapp mentioned, only one, Williams, is still with the club. There won’t be many familiar faces, at least from a Black & Gold perspective, when Trapp takes the field against his old team. Midfielders Aidan Morris and Isaiah Parente are the only other two players currently on the roster that even trained with Trapp, and they were both in the Academy at the time.

In fact, little of the Crew Trapp left is still there. The club has a new stadium in the heart of Columbus’ downtown. The practice facility is no longer in the village of Obetz but attached to Historic Crew Stadium with the state-of-the-art OhioHealth Performance Center. A club that once was on the low end of salary budget and transfer spends is now on the upper end of the mid-tier teams and just swapped one Designated Player for another.

While Trapp admits it will be emotional returning to Columbus, the fact that it won’t be where he played his games and against many former teammates changes the equation a bit when it comes to a homecoming.

“It’s more foreign than it’s ever been because the association is there in history and past experiences but not in current reality, which I do think is easier,” Trapp told Massive Report. “It’s not just a normal game but it’s definitely more on the spectrum that way than it could have been. It’s just different. There’s less of the baggage than there could have been.”

Now in his third season with the Loons, the Twin Cities has become Trapp and his family’s new home. He and his wife, Beth, now have two young boys, one who is already obsessed with soccer. They have a community of people around them on and off the field and are thoroughly enjoying life in Minnesota.

But the opportunity to come back to the city where he was born, to a place that helped raise him as a player and a man, is one Trapp has been waiting for since he left the Crew. And while he will be doing everything he can to win the game for the Loons, Friday night’s return will be special for Trapp.

“I’m so excited to come back,” he said. “It’s kinda surreal, to be honest. And it’s more surreal in the unknown of just how is this going to go. What’s the reception going to be? Especially because it’s a game that matters, right? Both teams want to win. The team in Columbus has been excellent this year and I think we’re catching form at a good time as well. So there’s a lot of fun storylines at play. But I’m just, excited is probably an overused word, but anticipating a fun, fun time.”