Nəriman Axundzadə and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Anass Zaroury’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadMohamed Farsi is the talk of the training ground
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Columbus Crew lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3-0, and a corner of somebody else's ground that made more noise than the rest of it put together. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them ever mentions it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ryan Pulisic on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Columbus Crew lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Columbus Crew can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Santiago Rodríguez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ryan Pulisic after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Columbus Crew lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Jamal Thiaré was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Schulte, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
9 combined actions and 6.48. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Columbus Crew can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Gonzalo Tapia 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Steven Moreira will want back
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
Columbus Crew asked and New York City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
It needed Wessam Abou Ali to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against New York Red Bulls, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amar Sejdic’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Columbus Crew needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Columbus Crew have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Columbus Crew close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Jamal Thiaré was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Seattle Sounders have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Connor Adams is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Columbus Crew hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
André Gomes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Columbus Crew know it.