16 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.
Hernán López Muñoz 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Vítor Costa 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matt Weah after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Dave Romney
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
11 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.
Position 15 and 5 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vítor Costa and San Jose Earthquakes agree another 2 years.
Timo Werner 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Allen Rojas has just signed for San Jose Earthquakes, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and DeJuan Jones was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” HJK had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Jose Earthquakes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at San Jose Earthquakes has to find a result from somewhere.
San Jose Earthquakes offered $30.0K; San Diego Football Club 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vítor Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Ousséni Bouda had San Jose Earthquakes level again within 1 minutes, and Houston Dynamo never got to play with a lead at all.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Jose Earthquakes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at San Jose Earthquakes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. DeJuan Jones 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Cristian Arango 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 had been thinking. DeJuan Jones 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michael Johnson and San Jose Earthquakes agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Cristian Arango was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dave Romney trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. San Jose Earthquakes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maxwell Woledzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. San Jose Earthquakes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Cristian Arango and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
DeJuan Jones 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michael Johnson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tim Morris has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at San Jose Earthquakes would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.