Sam Johnson

Attacking Midfielder (L) - San Diego Football Club
26 Jul 2043
Sunday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 5 Transfers Relations Events 53 Awards Matches History

Marked for Sam Johnson

878 Edition

The San Diego Football Club Sentinel

25 May 2043
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad25 May 2043

A knee injury of the worst kind for Jordan Bradley

118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Diego Football Club lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match23 May 2043

A hiding for San Diego Football Club

Beaten 0‑3 by Seattle Sounders, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Match23 May 2043

No end in sight to San Diego Football Club's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at San Diego Football Club has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad25 May 2043

Luis Otávio in a row with a teammate

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 Diego Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad25 May 2043

Words at San Diego Football Club training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vlad Oargă 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.

Boardroom25 May 2043

Doors closed at San Diego Football Club

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

In brief

Back issues
872 Edition

The San Diego Football Club Sentinel

13 Apr 2043
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match11 Apr 2043

The wait goes on for San Diego Football Club

7 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.

Market13 Apr 2043

San Diego Football Club say no — this time

The offer from Portland Timbers for Santiago Herrera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market13 Apr 2043

Only the photograph left for Ivan Dos Santos

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Dos Santos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around San Diego Football Club the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad13 Apr 2043

Luis Otávio in a row with a teammate

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 Diego Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad13 Apr 2043

Words at San Diego Football Club training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vlad Oargă 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.

Squad13 Apr 2043

No hiding place for Pedro Soma

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro Soma, and the manager let it.

Match11 Apr 2043

A bad afternoon for San Diego Football Club against Vancouver Whitecaps

0‑1 to Vancouver Whitecaps, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings13 Apr 2043

Nobody could get near Abdullah Al-Khaibari

Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad13 Apr 2043

Matías Pérez dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

842 Edition

The San Diego Football Club Sentinel

15 Sep 2042
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad15 Sep 2042

Tempers go at San Diego Football Club

Luis Otávio 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.

Squad15 Sep 2042

Vlad Oargă 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.

Squad15 Sep 2042

No hiding place for Ivan Dos Santos

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Dos Santos, and the manager let it.

Player ratings15 Sep 2042

Araz Jafarov shuts the door

Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Player ratings15 Sep 2042

Alex Pulisic was immovable

17 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.

Player ratings15 Sep 2042

The afternoon belonged to Luis Otávio

7.70, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. San Diego Football Club had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

Squad15 Sep 2042

San Diego Football Club pick somebody else ahead of Adam Saldana

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Market15 Sep 2042

The Luis Otávio story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luis Otávio signs something — a contract at San Diego Football Club or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Match13 Sep 2042

No goals between San Diego Football Club and Real Salt Lake

Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Real Salt Lake will be the happier side with the point.

In brief

825 Edition

The San Diego Football Club Sentinel

19 May 2042
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad19 May 2042

Vlad Oargă damages knee ligaments — 49 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.

Squad19 May 2042

Luca Bombino breaks a bone — 47 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match17 May 2042

4 matches without a win for San Diego Football Club

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around San Diego Football Club are no longer polite ones.

Squad19 May 2042

Luis Otávio in a row with a teammate

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 Diego Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match17 May 2042

Seattle Sounders take the points off San Diego Football Club

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad19 May 2042

Kobe Franklin 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.

Player ratings19 May 2042

Diego Rossi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings19 May 2042

A day to forget for Luis Otávio

Marked 4.59, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.

Market19 May 2042

The Luis Otávio question follows San Diego Football Club around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luis Otávio’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

790 Edition

The San Diego Football Club Sentinel

16 Sep 2041
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad16 Sep 2041

A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Pérez

31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Diego Football Club lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad16 Sep 2041

Adam Saldana breaks a bone — 26 days out

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.

Match14 Sep 2041

The wait goes on for San Diego Football Club

6 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.

Squad16 Sep 2041

Lucas Meuli keeps San Diego Football Club in it on his own

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.

Squad16 Sep 2041

Luis Otávio in a row with a teammate

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 Diego Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match14 Sep 2041

San Diego Football Club and Real Salt Lake take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief