Marked for DeAndre Robinson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Mar 2038
Toronto FC go through and CF Montreal go home, 2‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.58, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad5 Apr 2038
A fracture rules Michael Howard out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Apr 2038
78 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and CF Montreal know what they have.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
Age has not caught Jalen Neal yet — 7.88
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
A chastening introduction for Hirving Pineda — 5.77
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.77 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wikelman Carmona and CF Montreal agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Wikelman Carmona 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 ratings5 Apr 2038
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2037
A fracture rules Wikelman Carmona out for 130 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Age has not caught Kwadwo Opoku yet — 8.64
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.64 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Sep 2037
16 goals and a season average of 7.43. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad14 Sep 2037
“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.
Match12 Sep 2037
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match12 Sep 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between CF Montreal and Columbus Crew, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Ninety minutes of Henadii Synchuk at his very best
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at CF Montreal.
Market14 Sep 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sunusi Ibrahim signs something — a contract at CF Montreal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Oct 2036
Only the photograph left for Isaiah Teng
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaiah Teng will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CF Montreal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Oct 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Lucas Baños gets it from the manager
“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.