“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Dallas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
38 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Daniel 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 FC Dallas know it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jonny Shore is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Something was said to Christian Cappis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Dallas 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 FC Dallas has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Position 15 and 24 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Dallas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Nicholas Simmonds has moved up it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at FC Dallas would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nolan Norris trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at FC Dallas has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Dallas can pretend not to have heard.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Christian Zardes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
12 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at FC Dallas is running low.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon FC Dallas had all but put away. Los Angeles Football Club will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“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 FC Dallas, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
8 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Logan Farrington was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It needed Petar Musa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Los Angeles Football Club, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Christian Zardes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Herman Johansson had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Dallas can pretend not to have heard.
Daniel 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Musa 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 offer from Real Salt Lake for Patrickson Delgado 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.
4 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.
Shaq Moore 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. DC United have kept their man, and FC Dallas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Vancouver Whitecaps held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. FC Dallas answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FC Dallas have done the hard part with St. Louis CITY SC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.6M — a club that wants Ilay Feingold enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Inter Miami CF 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Musa 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.
Add another name to the list: New York Red Bulls have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ran Benyamin. The answer from FC Dallas has not changed — yet.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Dallas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
0‑3 to Minnesota United FC, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Christian Zardes after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Nolan Norris
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Dallas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Petar Musa 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.