Derek Dodson

Right Back - Minnesota United FC
20 Feb 2027
Saturday
Process

Marked for Derek Dodson

24 Edition

The Minnesota United FC Chronicle

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words exchanged at Minnesota United FC

Bongokuhle Hlongwane and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Mamadou Dieng stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mamadou Dieng and Minnesota United FC agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

One of our own: Owen Johnson joins the Minnesota United FC first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Owen Johnson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Minnesota United FC promote James Acosta from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. James Acosta has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.

Squad

Words at Minnesota United FC training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Díaz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

The dugout

When it matters, Owen Gene plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Tomás Chancalay talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Minnesota United FC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Kelvin Yeboah has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Kelvin Yeboah has written the date down.

The dugout

Owen Gene knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Minnesota United FC, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

Back issues
12 Edition

The Minnesota United FC Chronicle

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Tomás Chancalay hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Minnesota United FC can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Peter Stroud has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Minnesota United FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Minnesota United FC

Drake Callender and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

A row about effort at Minnesota United FC

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Pereyra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Mauricio González has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Minnesota United FC can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

The dugout

No hiding place for Marcus Caldeira

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcus Caldeira, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Owen Gene gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Owen Gene is on it.

Market

The Tomás Chancalay talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Minnesota United FC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Squad

Nicolás Romero has seen what the next man earns

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Minnesota United FC that is a harder question to answer.

In brief