A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Columbus Crew will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$5.1M on the table at Sporting Kansas City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.0M on the table at New York City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and LA Galaxy were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Éric Bailly and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The first defeat in 7 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Atlanta United FC; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wessam Abou Ali and Columbus Crew agree another 5 years.
Atlanta United FC left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Rodríguez 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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
André Gomes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wessam Abou Ali. 2‑0 against New England Revolution, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Wessam Abou Ali was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Sean Zawadzki 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.
Éric Bailly and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. George Ferreira has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ryan Pepi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Patrick Schulte signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Matt Reyna 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. Jack Turner 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Wessam Abou Ali and Columbus Crew agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Cesar Ruvalcaba and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.