“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Dallas 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 FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alaa Ghram 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aaron Ferreira has just signed for FC Dallas, and for once the answer mattered.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Justin Che has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means FC Dallas have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malachi Molina 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
Caden Clark 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.
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.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Alaa Ghram 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. FC Dallas will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.42 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
393 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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.
Caden Clark 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.
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.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
In brief
Player ratingsFranco Tassitani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Colin Guske
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.
Bamo Meïté 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.
Squad11 May 2037
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Valiente 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Dallas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.20 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Caden Clark 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.
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.
Squad4 May 2037
Alaa Ghram 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Franco Tassitani. 2‑1 against St. Louis CITY SC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
43 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Christian Dest did not need any: 8.56, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Bernard Kamungo 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dylan Wright will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Dallas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
A 1‑0 win over San Diego Football Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Day 39 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dylan Wright will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Dallas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
SquadBryce Duke falls out with a teammate over standards
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dylan Wright will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Dallas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Valiente 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.
Jonathan Sirois 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dylan Wright will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Dallas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Dec 2036
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Valiente 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.
Herman Johansson 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.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dylan Wright will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Dallas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
SquadPetar Musa falls out with a teammate over standards