Marked for Juan López
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ritsu Haraguchi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad5 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Omiya Ardija this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
$3.3M taken back off the Omiya Ardija table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Juan López 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 Juan López trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
A squad written off a fortnight ago has closed ranks. Whatever was said behind that door, it has held so far.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
17 graduates from an academy now rated 7 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Omiya Ardija
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Omiya Ardija may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Hijiri Kato 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 Omiya Ardija this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
A performance of 8.68 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“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; Omiya Ardija are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“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.
Match28 Jul 2029
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Shots: 8. 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.
Market30 Jul 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Hijiri Kato’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Queretaro may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 May 2028
100 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad1 May 2028
Diego Reyes 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
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
Brais Méndez 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 ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Steven Moreira, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Columbus Crew needed to.
Match18 Mar 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market20 Mar 2028
The Max Arfsten story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Max Arfsten signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Columbus Crew that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
Diego Reyes 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.
Squad20 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Michael Carcelén 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michael Carcelén signs something — a contract at Queretaro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
24 starts now, an average of 6.92, and the team sheet at Morelia has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.