Marked for Blake Gillingham
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Houston Dynamo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Marked 5.60, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Emmanuel Ojeda has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Houston Dynamo that is a harder question to answer.
Market13 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Houston Dynamo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Houston Dynamo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ezequiel Ponce 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Dec 2027
“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 Houston Dynamo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Houston Dynamo heard it as anything else.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ezequiel Ponce 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Nov 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Ezequiel Ponce 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Antônio Carlos
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Houston Dynamo can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match11 Sep 2027
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Ezequiel Ponce 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nick Markanich, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Houston Dynamo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Houston Dynamo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ondřej Lingr 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 Houston Dynamo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.