Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Los Angeles Football Club is running low.
A whole season of being the finest 19-year-old anybody in this league could put on a pitch. Los Angeles Football Club have him, and everybody else now knows it.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Los Angeles Football Club have had the benefit of it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Los Angeles Football Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Josh Acosta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Los Angeles Football Club the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mimeirhel Benita 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 Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. José Gallegos is living that version at Los Angeles Football Club, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mimeirhel Benita was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Los Angeles Football Club, and 0 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Los Angeles Football Club, another week without a signature from Mimeirhel Benita.
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.
Player ratings16 Jul 2035
A brace, and Rokas Pukstas takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rokas Pukstas provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Los Angeles Football Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
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.
Los Angeles Football Club have gone to FC Dallas 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mac Learned is a Los Angeles Football Club player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Los Angeles Football Club and St. Louis CITY SC in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Los Angeles Football Club they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Los Angeles Football Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Los Angeles Football Club people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Rick Jonkers 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Los Angeles Football Club will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Los Angeles Football Club told Thiago Delgado something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutSam Weah asks for a word with the manager
0‑3 against Portland Timbers, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Los Angeles Football Club can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Los Angeles Football Club and Houston Dynamo have settled on $110.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Los Angeles Football Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The offer from Nashville SC for Mac Learned 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.
Rokas Pukstas 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Los Angeles Football Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Los Angeles Football Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
Up for the corner, and Erik Dueñas delivers — 7.73
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Erik Dueñas scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Aidan Stokes 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christian Sanjiau and Los Angeles Football Club agree another 4 years.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. St. Louis CITY SC scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at St. Louis CITY SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
St. Louis CITY SC have gone to Seattle Sounders 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.
Los Angeles Football Club wanted more than $130.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Griffin Dorsey 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: AZ Jackson. 2‑1 against Minnesota United FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gastón Nazar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Los Angeles Football Club the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 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.
The offer from St. Louis CITY SC for Mac Learned 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. Los Angeles Football Club have done the hard part with Cruzeiro, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
$470.0K on the table at New England Revolution. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; St. Louis CITY SC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jano Coronel 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.
St. Louis CITY SC have gone to Los Angeles Football Club 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.
Seattle Sounders wanted more than $18.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Los Angeles Football Club they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduard Atuesta 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 Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Mark Johnson has come up in conversations Los Angeles Football Club were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Los Angeles Football Club, another week without a signature from Erik Dueñas.
Los Angeles Football Club have made the call to Houston Dynamo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Inter Miami CF have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.