28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orlando City lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orlando City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kobi Henry 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.
Squad14 Jul 2042
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Ellis 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Inter Miami CF? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Orlando City will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orlando City have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kobi Henry 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Orlando City training over how hard people work
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 2‑2 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Grant Leveille: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orlando City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Oct 2041
Bryan Ouanda 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 Orlando City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Oct 2041
Words at Orlando City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Ouanda 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 finished 2‑0, and it was Miles Howard’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Orlando City.
Player ratings14 Oct 2041
Miles Howard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bryan Ouanda 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.
Yan Carlos Vega 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.
Nobody at Orlando City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orlando City can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orlando City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Orlando City training over how hard people work
205 appearances across 12 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.
“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 Orlando City, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orlando City this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2040
Bryan Ouanda 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.
Nobody at Orlando City will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.