LA Galaxy will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sporting Kansas City were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Luzern is saying, and nobody at Sporting Kansas City is enjoying the guessing.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Russell Canouse and Sporting Kansas City agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sporting Kansas City, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 9.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
21 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Racing Club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting Kansas City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pašalić 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Sporting Kansas City 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.
Sporting Kansas City had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ludogorets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sporting Kansas City can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Victor Olatunji 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.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sporting Kansas City lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Atlanta United FC for Joe Brito 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sporting Kansas City have done the hard part with Racing Club, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Haladas is saying, and nobody at Sporting Kansas City is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pašalić 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Sporting Kansas City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sporting Kansas City has to find a result from somewhere.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sporting Kansas City have done the hard part with Tijuana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Molde keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Or Blorian and Sporting Kansas City agree another 4 years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sporting Kansas City can pretend not to have heard.
André Luiz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
John Pulskamp 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sporting Kansas City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutStephen Afrifa asks for a word with the manager
André Luiz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Pulskamp 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting Kansas City 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 Marco Pašalić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Sporting Kansas City 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sporting Kansas City, another week without a signature from Michael Halliday.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sporting Kansas City can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Seattle Sounders keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$780.0K was the most the club would pay and LA Galaxy were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting Kansas City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Orlando City did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $14.1M for Marco Pašalić, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” San Jose Earthquakes had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sporting Kansas City have done the hard part with Seattle Sounders, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting Kansas City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Salt Lake have kept their man, and Sporting Kansas City go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Marco Pašalić from Orlando City for $14.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Luiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Sporting Kansas City asked and Seattle Sounders said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Shapi Suleymanov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Luiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. André Luiz wants continental football; whether Sporting Kansas City can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting Kansas City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Luiz 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sporting Kansas City told Zorhan Bassong something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edmund Baidoo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
18 in and 1 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.
The deal with Red Bull Salzburg is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” André Luiz and Sporting Kansas City agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting Kansas City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Luiz 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 deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sporting Kansas City will try again when the window opens; Toronto FC may not be selling by then.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Aaronson has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Steffen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
0‑5 to Houston Dynamo, 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.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 5 of the 24 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emir Karić and Sporting Kansas City agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sporting Kansas City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Still no offer on the table, and Emir Karić’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Finlay 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.