Marked for Ian James
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout14 Nov 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad14 Nov 2033
Edvard Tagseth 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.
Squad14 Nov 2033
A move Brandon Robinson would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Brandon Robinson is living that version at Nashville SC, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 Nov 2033
Maxwell Woledzi 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.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom14 Nov 2033
110% of the income goes out in wages at Nashville SC
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad14 Nov 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brandon Robinson commits to Nashville SC for another 4 years.
Market14 Nov 2033
The Ahmed Qasem story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ahmed Qasem signs something — a contract at Nashville SC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout14 Nov 2033
Andrija Novaković has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nashville SC 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2033
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nashville SC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Diego Luna 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.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Matthew Corcoran 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.
Squad17 Jan 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Dest commits to Nashville SC for another 3 years.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
Ahmed Qasem 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 Ahmed Qasem is on it.
Market17 Jan 2033
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nashville SC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2032
Gboly Ariyibi damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nashville SC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Xavier Valdez 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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Words at Nashville SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxwell Woledzi 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 dugout8 Nov 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrija Novaković, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2032
Gboly Ariyibi damages knee ligaments — 52 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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 dugout1 Nov 2032
Ian James keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nashville SC may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Nov 2032
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nashville SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Words at Nashville SC training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jack Jasinski 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 dugout1 Nov 2032
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.
Market1 Nov 2032
The Sam Surridge talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Nashville SC know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad1 Nov 2032
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
The manager makes Jack Jasinski a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nashville SC. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Aug 2032
So close: Sam Surridge’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. LA Galaxy moved on, Sam Surridge reports back to Nashville SC, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Sam Surridge is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.32 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Xavier Valdez 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Diego Luna 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.
Match14 Aug 2032
Toronto FC left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
“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 dugout16 Aug 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Adam Ferreira left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
Sam Surridge 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 Sam Surridge is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2032
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match2 Jun 2032
A 3‑3 win over Seattle Sounders, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match2 Jun 2032
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Micah Burton will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Nashville SC escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings7 Jun 2032
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market7 Jun 2032
Sam Surridge wants to know where this is going
“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 Nashville SC hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Edvard Tagseth 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.
Match5 Jun 2032
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Jun 2032
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Chris Durkin 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Aidan Dausch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
Ian James ran the middle of the pitch — 7.32
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Player ratings
Ahmed Qasem runs at them all day
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
Nobody could get near Diego Luna
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.85, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
Window shuts: 18 in, 10 out at Nashville SC
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets26 Apr 2032
No thanks: Luken Álvarez rejects the move
Nashville SC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Barcelona, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad26 Apr 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nashville SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2032
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets26 Apr 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Chris Durkin 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Appearance number 100 for Ian James
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.