Marked for Brandon Servania
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at DC United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jordan Farr has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Silvan Hefti 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sean Johnson has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at DC United 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad14 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Alex Bono
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alex Bono, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Chicago Fire came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
DC United bow out of the cup
Colorado Rapids go through and DC United go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sean Johnson decides it from twelve yards
1 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and DC United did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Louis Munteanu 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tai Baribo 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brandon Servania. 2‑0 against Atlanta United FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
João Peglow 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at DC United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hosei Kijima has agreed terms with New York City for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tai Baribo commits to DC United for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Louis Munteanu 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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Minnesota United FC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alex Bono. The answer from DC United has not changed — yet.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.