Marked for Cameron Wright
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Nov 2040
Nick Fernandez: 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.” DC United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Nov 2040
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what DC United can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Nov 2040
Matti Peltola 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Oct 2040
Matti Peltola damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
The terraces1 Oct 2040
Anger at DC United spills outside the ground
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.
Squad1 Oct 2040
A fracture rules Jacob Murrell out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason DC United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom1 Oct 2040
Pressure builds in the DC United boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match1 Oct 2040
DC United sink to position 14
22 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Oct 2040
Matti Peltola 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
Squad3 Sep 2040
Matti Peltola damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
The terraces3 Sep 2040
Anger at DC United spills outside the ground
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.
Squad3 Sep 2040
A fracture rules Jacob Murrell out for 74 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason DC United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom3 Sep 2040
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Match3 Sep 2040
Every point is an argument now for DC United
Position 13 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings3 Sep 2040
A defender's goal wins it for DC United — 7.88
1 for Cameron Wright, marked 7.88, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad3 Sep 2040
Matti Peltola 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.
Match1 Sep 2040
It finished 2‑1, and it was Cameron Wright’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to DC United.
The terraces3 Sep 2040
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Cameron Wright has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Aug 2040
A fracture rules Jacob Murrell out for 88 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason DC United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Aug 2040
Connor Yedlin damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Match18 Aug 2040
No end in sight to DC United's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at DC United has to find a result from somewhere.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces9 Jul 2040
The mood at DC United has turned into something else
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.
Squad9 Jul 2040
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match7 Jul 2040
Nowhere to hide for DC United
0‑4 against New York Red Bulls, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad9 Jul 2040
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” DC United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Jul 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DC United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Jul 2040
Matti Peltola 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.
Match7 Jul 2040
DC United cannot find the net
3 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.
Boardroom9 Jul 2040
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings9 Jul 2040
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Oct 2039
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aaron Robinson
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. DC United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Oct 2039
Every point is an argument now for DC United
Position 14 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad17 Oct 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DC United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
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Squad
Words at DC United training over how hard people work
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Squad
The manager makes an example of Cameron Wright
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Boardroom
The DC United production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2039
DC United are in real trouble now
Position 14, 16 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad19 Sep 2039
Brandon Weah breaks a bone — 18 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Sep 2039
“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.
Squad19 Sep 2039
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DC United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Sep 2039
Kevin Colli wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and DC United now know that too.
Match17 Sep 2039
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jul 2039
Brandon Weah breaks a bone — 81 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Jul 2039
“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.
Player ratings18 Jul 2039
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match16 Jul 2039
The wait goes on for DC United
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.
Squad18 Jul 2039
Nicksoen Gomis 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.
Squad18 Jul 2039
Matti Peltola 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.
Market18 Jul 2039
David Nunes told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” David Nunes has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at DC United.
Match16 Jul 2039
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market18 Jul 2039
The name of Logan Farrington keeps appearing in other people's back pages. DC United say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Jun 2039
10 matches without a win for DC United
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around DC United are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom6 Jun 2039
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.
Match1 Jun 2039
The small margins put DC United out
Out, 3‑3 to Philadelphia Union, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market6 Jun 2039
“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.
Player ratings6 Jun 2039
Up for the corner, and Cameron Wright delivers — 7.67
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Cameron Wright scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match4 Jun 2039
DC United leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad6 Jun 2039
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Milton Cantero commits to DC United for another 2 years.
Squad6 Jun 2039
“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; DC United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad6 Jun 2039
Nicksoen Gomis 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.