The 2011 Columbus Crew season was the club's 16th season of existence and their 16th consecutive season in Major League Soccer, the top flight of soccer in the United States and Canada. The first match of the season was on March 19 against D.C. United. It was the third season under head coach Robert Warzycha.
The Crew opened its 2011 campaign with a Champions League quarterfinal fixture against fellow MLS competitor, Real Salt Lake. The match, the first leg of a quarterfinal series, was at Columbus Crew Stadium on February 22, 2011 and ended in a 0-0 draw. Columbus was trying to advance past the Quarterfinal stage after falling to Toluca 5-4 on aggregate last season.
On March 1, Columbus traveled to Rio Tinto Stadium and fell to Real Salt Lake by a score of 4-1, thus ending the Crew's run in the 2010âÂÂ11 CONCACAF Champions League.
Two and a half weeks later, Columbus opened up its Major League Soccer campaign by traveling to Washington, D.C. to take on D.C. United on March 19. The club's MLS home opener was one week later, when the Crew hosted Red Bull New York on March 26.
As of September 3, 2011.
The Crew started preseason in Columbus and played games in Arizona, Tennessee and Georgia before returning to Ohio. The Crew brought in the following trialists during training camp: Caleb Patterson-Sewell, Mark Blades, Neri Bandiera, Pat McAfee, Ray Burse, Alex Fraga, Alex Riggs, Josh Gardner and Eric Gehrig.
Unsigned draft picks Rich Balchan, Justin Meram, Cole Grossman, Bernardo Añor, Ben Sippola and Andy Adlard also joined the team for preseason.
With a fifth-place overall finish last season, the Crew secured direct qualification into the third-round proper of the U.S. Open Cup.
Under "Apps" for each section, the first number represents the number of starts, and the second number represents appearances as a substitute.
|- |colspan=12 align=center|Players who left Columbus during the season:
Under "Apps" for each section, the first number represents the number of starts, and the second number represents appearances as a substitute.
Draft picks are not automatically signed to the team roster. Only those who are signed to a contract will be listed as transfers in. The picks for the Columbus Crew are listed below: