Heung-Min Son 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 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Los Angeles Football Club are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Los Angeles Football Club told Gabe Segal something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ryan Porteous will call it something else in private.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Los Angeles Football Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Heung-Min Son 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Henry Kessler 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Los Angeles Football Club they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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.
A 1‑0 win over Vancouver Whitecaps, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Los Angeles Football Club.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Los Angeles Football Club will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Los Angeles Football Club they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Smolyakov 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergi Palencia 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.
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.
Marked 7.43 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Los Angeles Football Club had the best player on the pitch.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against LA Galaxy? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Los Angeles Football Club could ask drops and the wages Moussa Doumbia can ask rise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Heung-Min Son 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 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 Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergi Palencia 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Denis Bouanga.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Los Angeles Football Club has to find a result from somewhere.
Heung-Min Son 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
10 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.
5 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.
Heung-Min Son 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Henry Kessler 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Los Angeles Football Club 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 Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Martínez 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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Erik McCue’s negotiating for him