A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LA Galaxy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
San Diego Football Club will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. LA Galaxy were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Matt Freese reports back to LA Galaxy with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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 The request is on a desk at LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
LA Galaxy asked and CF Montreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.84 for the rest of it.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at LA Galaxy until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LA Galaxy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Matt Freese 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. LA Galaxy told John Nelson something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. LA Galaxy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at LA Galaxy has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Sanabria 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Sanabria signs something — a contract at LA Galaxy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at LA Galaxy has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from FC Copenhagen for Kevin Paredes was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Sanabria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Agustín Ojeda is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlos Garcés trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“39 caps was 39 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from LA Galaxy.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at LA Galaxy, another week without a signature from Saba Lobzhanidze.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether LA Galaxy can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Sergi Roberto 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.
21 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at LA Galaxy now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at LA Galaxy will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutLucas Sanabria asks for a word with the manager
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LA Galaxy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; LA Galaxy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Sanabria trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at LA Galaxy will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until João Klauss signs something — a contract at LA Galaxy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LA Galaxy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Something was said to Tyler Boyd and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at LA Galaxy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Sanabria signs something — a contract at LA Galaxy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The offer went to Minnesota United FC this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. San Jose Earthquakes drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nashville SC have kept their man, and LA Galaxy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.1M — a club that wants Samuel Adeniran enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Atlanta United FC this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.0M — a club that wants Shakur Mohammed enough to be asked twice.
$160.0K on the table at Orlando City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
San Jose Earthquakes asked and Nashville SC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ethan Kohler 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.
LA Galaxy asked and Real Salt Lake said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$5.4M on the table at Seattle Sounders. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
LA Galaxy have gone to Vancouver Whitecaps with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
$1.6M on the table at San Jose Earthquakes. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Heung-Min Son 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Sanabria 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Carlos Garcés
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” San Jose Earthquakes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
7.54, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
$1.5M on the table at Nashville SC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Colorado Rapids this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Arango was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. San Jose Earthquakes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 San Jose Earthquakes, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sebastian Soto has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; San Jose Earthquakes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ousséni Bouda falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Preston Judd 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Angus Gunn signs something — a contract at San Jose Earthquakes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Jose Earthquakes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Arango 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.
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 Ousséni Bouda has written the date down.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Arango was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; San Jose Earthquakes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ousséni Bouda 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.
“I did not go to Houston Dynamo to sit and watch. I want to come back to San Jose Earthquakes and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tyler Wolff trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Minnesota United FC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Los Angeles Football Club the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that San Jose Earthquakes will enjoy reviewing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Jose Earthquakes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Arango 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Deandre Kerr.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. CF Montreal moved on, Brooks Lennon reports back to San Jose Earthquakes, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
San Jose Earthquakes offered $76.0K; Nashville SC said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Arango 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.
“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 San Jose Earthquakes, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” San Jose Earthquakes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at San Jose Earthquakes until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jack Skahan reports back to San Jose Earthquakes with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at San Jose Earthquakes can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
San Jose Earthquakes ran out of time with St. Louis CITY SC. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
San Jose Earthquakes asked and Real Salt Lake said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
San Jose Earthquakes offered $200.0K; FC Dallas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Chicago Fire paid $7.6M and San Jose Earthquakes took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Jose Earthquakes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Earl Edwards Jr. has gone, the accounts have $7.6M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what San Jose Earthquakes can pretend not to have heard.
$940.0K on the table at Austin FC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0M — a club that wants Damian Łaś enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Portland Timbers this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Seattle Sounders wanted more than $240.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Samid Akanni 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at San Jose Earthquakes, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronaldo Vieira, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Vítor Costa is still being punished for one mistake
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.