Marked for Cédric Bakambu
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
Cédric Bakambu 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeppe Tverskov 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Pablo Sisniega
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market28 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gabriel Pirani’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
When it matters, Bryce Duke plays
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 dugout28 Dec 2026
Manu Duah knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at San Diego Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Cédric Bakambu 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeppe Tverskov 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ryan Reyna 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ian Pilcher
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market9 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with CJ dos Santos’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes Aníbal Godoy a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at San Diego Football Club. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Manu Duah asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Hirving Lozano’s exile
3 goals in 8 games at LA Galaxy — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at San Diego Football Club updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Anders Dreyer plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Cédric Bakambu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeppe Tverskov 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Elias Achouri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oscar Verhoeven, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Elias Achouri signs something — a contract at San Diego Football Club or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation San Diego Football Club did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jeppe Tverskov 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aníbal Godoy, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award goes to Marcus Ingvartsen, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bryce Duke 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Marcus Ingvartsen takes the afternoon — 9.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcus Ingvartsen provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 74 days on the sidelines for Cédric Bakambu, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at San Diego Football Club until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Houston Dynamo wanted more than $150.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jeppe Tverskov 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elias Achouri, and the manager let it.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Matheus Nascimento has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Cédric Bakambu takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cédric Bakambu provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Aug 2026
OB come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and San Diego Football Club did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at San Diego Football Club heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Cédric Bakambu 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeppe Tverskov 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
San Diego Football Club asked and Vancouver Whitecaps said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.