Marked for Lucas Lima
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout31 Mar 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” FC Dallas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market31 Mar 2031
“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.
Market31 Mar 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Dallas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match29 Mar 2031
No end in sight to FC Dallas's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at FC Dallas has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Daniel 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.
Transfer targets31 Mar 2031
FC Dallas offered $210.0K; Houston Dynamo 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro 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.
Match29 Mar 2031
The goals have deserted FC Dallas
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FC Dallas can tell you which week it ends in.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Mar 2031
0‑3 to San Diego Football Club, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market3 Mar 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at FC Dallas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 Mar 2031
Kyle Hiebert has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Dallas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 Mar 2031
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Dallas heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Mar 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joaquín Valiente and FC Dallas agree another 4 years.
Market3 Mar 2031
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Transfer targets3 Mar 2031
$490.0K was the most the club would pay and FC Cincinnati were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at FC Dallas
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Boardroom
9 academy players handed senior numbers at FC Dallas
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Squad
Words exchanged at FC Dallas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
FC Dallas part company with the manager
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
A stranger takes charge at FC Dallas
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market3 Feb 2031
“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.
Market3 Feb 2031
Kyle Hiebert has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Dallas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Daniel 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
A row about effort at FC Dallas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Garay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
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The dugout3 Feb 2031
The manager makes an example of Ricky Louis
“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
Crisis
Match6 Jul 2030
14 matches without a win for FC Dallas
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around FC Dallas are no longer polite ones.
The terraces8 Jul 2030
Supporters organise against the FC Dallas board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad8 Jul 2030
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Dallas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at FC Dallas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings8 Jul 2030
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at FC Dallas
Daniel 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 Jul 2030
A row about effort at FC Dallas
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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cesar Ruvalcaba and FC Dallas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.