Sergi Palencia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Mijatović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Los Angeles Football Club know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jovan Mijatović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Los Angeles Football Club needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Los Angeles Football Club have no good answer.
“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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Los Angeles Football Club heard it as anything else.
Jovan Mijatović 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Myrto Uzuni and Los Angeles Football Club agree another 2 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Igor Jesus wants continental football; whether Los Angeles Football Club can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
15 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The fee is $1.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. DC United drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Sergi Palencia 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Los Angeles Football Club and Minnesota United FC in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Mijatović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Los Angeles Football Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Everything agreed with San Jose Earthquakes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Los Angeles Football Club offered $920.0K; Nashville SC said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Los Angeles Football Club told Ryan Porteous something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Los Angeles Football Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to Philadelphia Union this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Charlotte Football Club this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Los Angeles Football Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.49 for the rest of it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Los Angeles Football Club will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Los Angeles Football Club know it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Sergi Palencia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrew Dest after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Artem Smolyakov is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Los Angeles Football Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrew Dest after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Sergi Palencia 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.
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.
Marked 7.94 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.
The dugout15 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Andrew Dest, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Los Angeles Football Club, another week without a signature from Myrto Uzuni.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
A brace, and Myrto Uzuni takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Myrto Uzuni provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$5.1M was the most the club would pay and Inter Miami CF 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.
4 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.
Sergi Palencia 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Real Salt Lake drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Chituru Odunze 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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Los Angeles Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Wages are the subject a dressing room never discusses and always knows. Everybody at Los Angeles Football Club has now done the sum, and nobody is saying it out loud.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
$2.7M settles it between the clubs for Myrto Uzuni
Austin FC have accepted the money. What Los Angeles Football Club do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Los Angeles Football Club asked and Real Salt Lake said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
4 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.
$500.0K on the table at San Diego Football Club. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Los Angeles Football Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Los Angeles Football Club have gone to FC Cincinnati with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
David Martínez 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chicago Fire have kept their man, and Los Angeles Football Club go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Los Angeles Football Club, 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 Los Angeles Football Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Los Angeles Football Club than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Los Angeles Football Club would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Los Angeles Football Club have no good answer.
In brief
The dugoutRyan Raposo asks for a word with the manager
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 Ryan Porteous something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Los Angeles Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jeremy Ebobisse signs something — a contract at Los Angeles Football Club or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Sergi Palencia 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Los Angeles Football Club can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Los Angeles Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Los Angeles Football Club know it.
CJ Fodrey 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Elijah Martin 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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
1‑1 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Los Angeles Football Club are entitled to ignore.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergi Palencia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ryan Porteous 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
2‑1 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.13. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Andrew Dest on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Elijah Martin 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Los Angeles Football Club know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Los Angeles Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Los Angeles Football Club would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Los Angeles Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elijah Martin 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hugo Lloris and Los Angeles Football Club agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amin Boudri. 2‑1 against Houston Dynamo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Los Angeles Football Club, and 6 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ryan Hollingshead will call it something else in private.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mathieu Choinière scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
7.63, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artem Smolyakov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.87 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Andrew Dest on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutIgor Jesus asks for a word with the manager
Add another name to the list: Tigres have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Denis Bouanga. The answer from Los Angeles Football Club has not changed — yet.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Los Angeles Football Club heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denis Bouanga and Los Angeles Football Club agree another 3 years.
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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against San Diego Football Club.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mark Delgado is on it.
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 36, with 420 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Los Angeles Football Club that is a harder question to answer.
5 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.
Hugo Lloris 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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 Igor Jesus.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A last season at home is what Denis Bouanga is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Elijah Martin's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Timothy Tillman was one of the reasons people came, and $5.8M does not replace that by itself.
Los Angeles Football Club asked and Orlando City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Los Angeles Football Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
1 for Mathieu Choinière, marked 7.51, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Hugo Lloris 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.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 3 players sit outside all 4 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergi Palencia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 2 players sit outside all 3 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
Yevhen Cheberko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
Position 8, 20 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Something was said to Sergi Palencia and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Andrew Dest on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nkosi Tafari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
CJ Fodrey 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrew Dest after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Los Angeles Football Club heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Igor Jesus wants continental football; whether Los Angeles Football Club can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Hugo Lloris 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ryan Hollingshead and Los Angeles Football Club agree another 2 years.
A 2‑1 win over Sporting Kansas City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Amin Boudri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Los Angeles Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad31 May 2027
Elijah Martin 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 dugout31 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Andrew Dest was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Los Angeles Football Club dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A brace, and Denis Bouanga takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denis Bouanga provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
4 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. DC United have kept their man, and Los Angeles Football Club go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.64, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Colorado Rapids had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
0‑3 against St. Louis CITY SC, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Igor Jesus wants continental football; whether Los Angeles Football Club can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New York City have kept their man, and Los Angeles Football Club go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Denis Bouanga 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Los Angeles Football Club can tell you which week it ends in.
“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.
“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 Los Angeles Football Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Los Angeles Football Club know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elijah Martin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daniel Edelman’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Los Angeles Football Club needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A side in position 11 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
“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 Los Angeles Football Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Los Angeles Football Club know it.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against LA Galaxy; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It has nothing to do with his form and everything to do with how the squad was assembled. He will train all week with a group he is not permitted to play for, which is a strange way to spend a season.
The offer from LA Galaxy for Denis Bouanga 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Los Angeles Football Club have done the hard part with St. Louis CITY SC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Mark Delgado 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.
Los Angeles Football Club asked and New England Revolution said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Denis Bouanga keeps the shirt for now, at Los Angeles Football Club's convenience rather than his own.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Denis Bouanga had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Los Angeles Football Club hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It involved Kenny Nielsen, it was loud enough to reach the car park, and it was over by lunch. Dressing rooms run hot; the ones that should worry you are the silent ones.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Los Angeles Football Club told Timothy Tillman something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Ryan Porteous is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
25 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kenny Nielsen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Los Angeles Football Club know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Los Angeles Football Club. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Mathieu Choinière’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Timothy Tillman 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Amin Boudri has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutArmindo Sieb asks for a word with the manager
SquadHeung-Min Son is training like a man with a point to make
25 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Amin Boudri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Los Angeles Football Club will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thomas Hasal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Los Angeles Football Club the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Dec 2026
6 clean sheets and the golden glove for Hugo Lloris
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 6 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Ryan Porteous's mistake
25 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Los Angeles Football Club can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Los Angeles Football Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Los Angeles Football Club know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eric Klein trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Sergi Palencia 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Los Angeles Football Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Los Angeles Football Club will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Los Angeles Football Club heard it as anything else.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Los Angeles Football Club will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Armindo Sieb, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Mark Delgado
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mark Delgado has come out of that comparison in the side, and Los Angeles Football Club have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
A brace, and Denis Bouanga takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denis Bouanga provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
A 3‑2 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.
Thomas Hasal 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.