Cesar Ruvalcaba

Central Defender - Columbus Crew
17 May 2029
Thursday
Process

Marked for Cesar Ruvalcaba

145 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Steven Moreira

52 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.

Match

Columbus Crew win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 95th minute. Nashville SC will replay every second of the added time for a week.

The dugout

Steven Moreira keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Columbus Crew may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Josef Martínez yet — 8.81

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Santiago Rodríguez wants more than Columbus Crew are offering

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Columbus Crew

Éric Bailly 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.

Match

The drought breaks for Columbus Crew

6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Nashville SC were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Match

Columbus Crew get the job done against Nashville SC

A 2‑1 win over Nashville SC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Brais Méndez in the eights

A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

Back issues
142 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

16 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Steven Moreira

76 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Michael Johnson out for 32 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Columbus Crew will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

No end in sight to Columbus Crew's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Columbus Crew has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Éric Bailly in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Columbus Crew cannot find the net

4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

The dugout

Patrick Schulte gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Columbus Crew come up short against Orlando City

Orlando City left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Ruvalcaba 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 dugout

Alex Moore faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alex Moore after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

139 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

26 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Steven Moreira out for 100 days

100 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.

Match

Columbus Crew run riot against Atlanta United FC

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

A brace, and Wessam Abou Ali takes the afternoon — 8.83

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Wessam Abou Ali provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Jamal Thiaré puts it in writing

“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.

Match

Columbus Crew end the wait against Atlanta United FC

It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Squad

A falling-out at Columbus Crew

André Gomes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Atlanta United FC blown away early

There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Atlanta United FC tried to reorganise, Columbus Crew did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.

Squad

Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Ruvalcaba 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Brais Méndez

Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

124 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

11 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Brais Méndez is named among the best

There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Columbus Crew will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

Squad

Words exchanged at Columbus Crew

Éric Bailly 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Columbus Crew

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cesar Ruvalcaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Mac Learned gets it from the manager

“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.

The dugout

Leo Duru has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.

Market

The Patrick Schulte story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patrick Schulte signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

121 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

20 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Zach Zengue

15 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.

Market

Columbus Crew may not be able to give Santiago Rodríguez what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santiago Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Columbus Crew can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Columbus Crew

Éric Bailly 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.

Loan watch

Owen Presthus counts the days

“I watch every Columbus Crew game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at New York Red Bulls runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

Brais Méndez has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.

The dugout

Santiago Rodríguez knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Squad

Cesar Ruvalcaba 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.

Market

Andrés Herrera linked with a move away

The name of Andrés Herrera keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Columbus Crew say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Jamal Thiaré has been promised minutes

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 Jamal Thiaré has written the date down.

In brief

118 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

30 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Greg Ranjitsingh is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Columbus Crew is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Columbus Crew

Ramiro 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.

Squad

Connor Robinson signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Connor Robinson and Columbus Crew agree another 3 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Columbus Crew

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cesar Ruvalcaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Mohamed Farsi 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 Mohamed Farsi is on it.

Market

The Malte Amundsen question follows Columbus Crew around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Malte Amundsen’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Match

Columbus Crew have something to play for

Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.

The dugout

A door opens for Jamal Thiaré

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.

The dugout

Connor Robinson knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Connor Robinson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

115 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

9 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Lynden Gooch says Columbus Crew went back on their word

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Columbus Crew

Éric Bailly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Leo Duru signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leo Duru commits to Columbus Crew for another 3 years.

The dugout

Wessam Abou Ali has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.

Squad

Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Ruvalcaba 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.

Market

The Wessam Abou Ali talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Columbus Crew know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

112 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

18 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Still nobody has beaten Columbus Crew

The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Player ratings

Josef Martínez, 35, rolls back the years — 7.86

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Match

Columbus Crew make home a hard place to visit

12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

Words exchanged at Columbus Crew

André Gomes 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.

Match

Josef Martínez rescues a point for Columbus Crew

It needed Josef Martínez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against DC United, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

Squad

A row about effort at Columbus Crew

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cesar Ruvalcaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alex Moore was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Columbus Crew dressing room was either.

The dugout

Mohamed Farsi 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 Mohamed Farsi is on it.

Player ratings

Wallace Yan was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 13. 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.

In brief

109 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

28 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Whatever happens, Columbus Crew do not lose

8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Words exchanged at Columbus Crew

Éric Bailly 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.

Match

Columbus Crew caught on 90 minutes

The board was up, the win was priced in, and then FC Cincinnati scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.

Player ratings

Santiago Rodríguez stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.97 on the card, and the Columbus Crew support went home talking about one name.

Player ratings

The cruellest goal, and it is Zach Zengue's

A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Columbus Crew will not try tonight.

The dugout

Brais Méndez has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.

Squad

Brandon Weah signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brandon Weah and Columbus Crew agree another 5 years.

Match

Santiago Rodríguez rescues a point for Columbus Crew

It needed Santiago Rodríguez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against FC Cincinnati, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

Squad

Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Ruvalcaba 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

103 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Luke Pruter turns Minnesota United FC down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Squad

Éric Bailly in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

An offer of $280.0K for Azriel Gonzalez

Columbus Crew have gone to Inter Miami CF 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.

Transfer targets

No deal for Brian Anunga at that price

Columbus Crew offered $200.0K; FC Cincinnati 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.

Transfer targets

Columbus Crew rebuffed over Azriel Gonzalez

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter Miami CF have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Columbus Crew get the job done against New York City

A 2‑1 win over New York City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Brais Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.34. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

Wessam Abou Ali in the eights

A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Santiago Rodríguez at his very best

Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Columbus Crew.

In brief

99 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Rudy Camacho has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Columbus Crew they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Éric Bailly in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Sean Zawadzki 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Cesar Ruvalcaba

“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 dugout

Mohamed Farsi 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 Mohamed Farsi is on it.

Market

The Wessam Abou Ali question follows Columbus Crew around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Wessam Abou Ali’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

The manager makes Jamal Thiaré a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Columbus Crew. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

Loan watch

Dylan Chambost first choice at St. Louis CITY SC

11 starts and a season average of 6.70. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.

Looking ahead

Columbus Crew host Charlotte Football Club

Next up at home: Charlotte Football Club, who go into it in position 11. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.

In brief

98 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

12 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Rudy Camacho out for 18 days

18 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.

The dugout

Cesar Ruvalcaba: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Columbus Crew have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Only the photograph left for Nicholas Hagen

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicholas Hagen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Columbus Crew the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sean Zawadzki 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Columbus Crew

André Gomes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Wallace Yan was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

The dugout

No hiding place for Lynden Gooch

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lynden Gooch, and the manager let it.

Match

Columbus Crew share the spoils with New England Revolution

A 1‑1 draw with New England Revolution leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Alex Moore on the draw

“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.

In brief

92 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

1 May 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Rudy Camacho damages knee ligaments — 64 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.

Squad

63 days out for Steven Moreira after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Columbus Crew will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Forrest Lasso

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Forrest Lasso will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Columbus Crew the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Match

Columbus Crew make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Columbus Crew have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

A move Cesar Ruvalcaba 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. Cesar Ruvalcaba is living that version at Columbus Crew, and it tends to show in the first month.

Market

Cesar Ruvalcaba comes home

The shirt still fits. Cesar Ruvalcaba is back at Columbus Crew, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Squad

Tempers go at Columbus Crew

Éric Bailly 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.

Match

Columbus Crew see off New York Red Bulls

Three points for Columbus Crew, 2‑0 the final word against New York Red Bulls in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

André Gomes was the difference for Columbus Crew

Marked 7.79. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

In brief

65 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

25 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

The season ends here for Columbus Crew

Nashville SC go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.

Squad

A falling-out at Columbus Crew

Éric Bailly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Columbus Crew

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Zach Zengue signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zach Zengue commits to Columbus Crew for another 4 years.

The dugout

No hiding place for Sean Zawadzki

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sean Zawadzki, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Cesar Ruvalcaba runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Columbus Crew

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Alex Moore to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

André Gomes asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

53 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

2 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

A brace, and Wessam Abou Ali takes the afternoon — 8.77

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Wessam Abou Ali provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

7 matches without a win for Columbus Crew

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Columbus Crew are no longer polite ones.

Transfer targets

An offer of $3.6M for Luca Petrasso

Columbus Crew have gone to CF Montreal 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.

Transfer targets

Columbus Crew make their move for Jayden Reid

$1.5M on the table at Sporting Kansas 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.

Market

Columbus Crew say no — this time

The offer from San Diego Football Club for Cesar Ruvalcaba 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.

Transfer targets

Columbus Crew bid $600.0K for Ali Fadal

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.

Transfer targets

Facundo Krüger turns down Columbus Crew

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

A falling-out at Columbus Crew

André Gomes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

Patrick Schulte gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

52 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

26 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

6 matches without a win for Columbus Crew

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Columbus Crew are no longer polite ones.

Market

CF Montreal come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Columbus Crew did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Match

The run at home goes on for Columbus Crew

11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Transfer targets

Facundo Krüger is a medical away from Columbus Crew

The deal with Boca Juniors 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.

Squad

Éric Bailly in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Ali Fadal

Columbus Crew asked and Colorado Rapids said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Eyes on Cesar Ruvalcaba again

The phone has started ringing about Cesar Ruvalcaba again, and this time the name on the line is San Diego Football Club. Columbus Crew are listening politely and promising nothing.

Player ratings

Santiago Rodríguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Columbus Crew had all but put away. Philadelphia Union will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

In brief