Marked for Jack Maher
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Josh Bauer 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 Nashville SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Jack Maher'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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Hany Mukhtar may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ahmed Qasem’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Zidane Yañez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nashville SC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Brian Schwake has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
11 saves: Joe Willis was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match17 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Nashville SC
A 0‑3 beating by New York City was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Jeisson Palacios: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nashville SC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nashville SC can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Andy Najar 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Woobens Pacius
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Nashville SC dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 18 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jack Maher has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Kobe Franklin 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Maxwell Woledzi'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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Isaiah LeFlore 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daniel Lovitz’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nashville SC needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
Nashville SC throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with DC United the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Nashville SC will enjoy reviewing.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nashville SC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Thomas Williams is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Joe Willis 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kobe Franklin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 2‑2 draw with DC United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Something was said to Jack Maher and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Miles Ferreira chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑4 against Chicago Fire, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Nashville SC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Patrick Yazbek pops up at the right end — 7.43
7.43, 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 18 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Woobens Pacius
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Josh Bauer 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Something was said to Andy Najar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Hany Mukhtar scored in the 88th minute, Columbus Crew had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Nashville SC took the lot.
Squad31 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Alex Muyl
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Andy Najar 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.90. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nashville SC are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Miles Ferreira could afford to be generous.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kobe Franklin 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.