Marked for Jared Stroud
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Apr 2028
Atlanta United FC pay $1.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Keaton Parks 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.
Match1 Apr 2028
FC Cincinnati left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Tahiel Jiménez
“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.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Marked 8.65 — 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.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Apr 2028
DC United will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Sean Johnson is not saying it is over
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 38 with 295 appearances behind him, and DC United have to plan for both answers.
In brief
-
Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Jacob Murrell’s exile
-
Boardroom
The DC United production line keeps running
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Mar 2028
DC United say no — this time
The offer from LA Galaxy for Gabriel Pirani 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at DC United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jared Stroud and DC United agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Keaton Parks 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
The shirt still fits. Duane Holmes is back at DC United, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market6 Mar 2028
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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabe Segal, and the manager let it.
Match4 Mar 2028
0‑1 to Inter Miami CF, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
Keaton Parks 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Zac McGraw
“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.
Market24 Jan 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Brandon Servania signs something — a contract at DC United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom20 Dec 2027
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Keaton Parks 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Allan Sousa and DC United agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market20 Dec 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market20 Dec 2027
The name of Gabriel Pirani keeps appearing in other people's back pages. DC United say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad20 Dec 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at DC United has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
A one-man rearguard from Sean Johnson
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Keaton Parks in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DC United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Gabriel Pirani
12 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marked 9.24 — 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Aug 2027
João Peglow gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DC United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Jun 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Louis Munteanu’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to DC United.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Marked 9.01 — 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.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Gabriel Pirani
8 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
“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 DC United, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad21 Jun 2027
João Peglow knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and João Peglow trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
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.
Match15 May 2027
Three points for DC United, 2‑1 the final word against Toronto FC in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A performance of 8.87 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A performance of 8.62 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Allan Sousa
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Keaton Parks 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.
Squad17 May 2027
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Brandon Servania’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 8. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
A one-man rearguard from Sean Johnson
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match3 May 2027
DC United are in real trouble now
Position 14, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad3 May 2027
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.
Match1 May 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Jared Stroud
“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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 2027
DC United say no — this time
The offer from New York Red Bulls for Gabriel Pirani 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. St. Louis CITY SC moved on, Jackson Hopkins reports back to DC United, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at DC United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Louis Munteanu
“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.
Market22 Feb 2027
A conversation is coming this week. DC United will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market22 Feb 2027
No place for Hosei Kijima in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hosei Kijima has his answer from DC United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.