It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colorado Rapids this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colorado Rapids they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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; Colorado Rapids are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It needed Ahmed Adebayo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Portland Timbers, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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 The request is on a desk at Colorado Rapids, and it is not being withdrawn.
Paxten Aaronson 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Darren Yapi. 2‑1 against LA Galaxy, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colorado Rapids 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 Colorado Rapids this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Colorado Rapids know it.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I did not go to Nashville SC to sit and watch. I want to come back to Colorado Rapids and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colorado Rapids this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portland Timbers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portland Timbers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
José Luis Caicedo 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.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Felipe Mora’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Gage Guerra on the training pitch
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Kelsy and Portland Timbers agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portland Timbers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Portland Timbers have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
José Luis Caicedo 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.
José Luis Caicedo 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Portland Timbers, another week without a signature from Rodrigo Brandán.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Brandon Bye is still in the building