The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around FC Dallas are no longer polite ones.
The terraces24 Sep 2029
The mood at FC Dallas has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Shaq Moore 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 FC Dallas know it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
13 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.
Daniel 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shaq Moore 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.
8.16. 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. FC Dallas know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at FC Dallas is running low.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Dallas heard it as anything else.
Daniel 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 Shaq Moore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FC Dallas can tell you which week it ends in.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 15 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
FC Dallas interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Cándido Ramírez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shaq Moore 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.
FC Dallas asked and Sporting Kansas 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.
Something was said to Fabian Herbers and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ethan Hoard trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FC Dallas dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shaq Moore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
FC Dallas asked and Columbus Crew said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Minute 86, against St. Louis CITY SC, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 15 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Herman Johansson was one of the reasons people came, and $4.7M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CF Montreal keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Dallas can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Aaron Long 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.
Sporting Kansas City next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at FC Dallas is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel signs something — a contract at FC Dallas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Kosi Thompson is on it.
Daniel 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brandon Bye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brandon Bye, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
SquadA FC Dallas teenager takes the young player award
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
15 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and San Jose Earthquakes were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Position 14 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Dallas heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joaquín Valiente. 2‑0 against San Jose Earthquakes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.06. 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yeison Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Something was said to Ethan Hoard and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yeison Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FC Dallas can tell you which week it ends in.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yeison Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brendan Hines-Ike 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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at FC Dallas who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
11 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Dallas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Àlex López, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
FC Dallas close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 9 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.
Everything agreed with CF Montreal, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Lainez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Dallas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 FC Dallas, and it is not being withdrawn.
San Jose Earthquakes pay $930.0K, 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FC Dallas told Kosi Thompson something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel signs something — a contract at FC Dallas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at FC Dallas can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
FC Dallas asked and Atlanta United FC 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑3 to Houston Dynamo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The offer from Real Salt Lake for Ran Benyamin 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.
6 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.
FC Cincinnati paid $1.8M and FC Dallas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FC Dallas have done the hard part with Portland Timbers, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Dallas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
The name of Ran Benyamin has come up in conversations FC Dallas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
FC Dallas have made the call to Portland Timbers. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. FC Dallas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FC Dallas have done the hard part with Cortulua, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Daniel 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.
Sporting Kansas City pay $390.0K, 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.
FC Dallas asked and CF Montreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Stuart Hawkins has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ran Benyamin has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at FC Dallas.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brooks Thompson 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Christian Cappis has moved up it.
Daniel 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Colorado Rapids defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at FC Dallas is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Dallas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Herman Johansson 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Christian Turner to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brendan Hines-Ike, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brooks Thompson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ford Parker
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” FC Dallas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Dallas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Daniel 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
FC Dallas asked and DC United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Half-satisfied: the manager on the draw
“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.
“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 FC Dallas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Brendan Hines-Ike has, at FC Dallas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
He is going to Columbus Crew, the club has $3.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. FC Dallas have done the hard part with Guadalajara, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Herman Johansson 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 offer from DC United for Anderson Julio 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.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Anderson Julio’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to FC Dallas.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Kamungo 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.
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
the manager has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at FC Dallas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
A 1‑0 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.
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.
9 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Malachi Molina is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jalen Crisler will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around FC Dallas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Daniel 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. FC Dallas told Junior Arias something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Munie
SquadAnthony Fontana falls out with a teammate over standards
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
San Diego Football Club left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Kamungo 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.
Position 12, 15 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.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 the manager left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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 Austin FC.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Dallas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A brace, and Junior Arias takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Junior Arias provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. FC Dallas will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A 2‑1 win over Colorado Rapids, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Colorado Rapids. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Kamungo 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.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at FC Dallas heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Fontana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Joaquín Valiente has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ford Parker
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around FC Dallas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Daniel 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 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernard Kamungo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Minnesota United FC had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Anderson Julio to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Minnesota United FC, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Osaze Urhoghide trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 May 2028
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and FC Dallas will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad15 May 2028
5 new faces, and FC Dallas are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Forrest Lasso has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means FC Dallas have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ford Parker, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” the manager was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the FC Dallas dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ford Parker
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and St. Louis CITY SC spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at FC Dallas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Daniel 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicholas Simmonds has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Anderson Julio. 1‑0 against St. Louis CITY SC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadBernard Kamungo falls out with a teammate over standards
7 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Flamengo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Kamungo 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.
A loan enquiry to Argentinos Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Half-satisfied: the manager on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason FC Dallas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicholas Simmonds did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Dallas can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Independiente, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
FC Dallas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olimpia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Dallas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Dallas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 FC Dallas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Columbus Crew 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.
FC Dallas asked and Baltika said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what FC Dallas can pretend not to have heard.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jalen Crisler has his answer from FC Dallas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Anderson Julio signs something — a contract at FC Dallas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Patrickson Delgado 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and FC Dallas will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Daniel 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 Ramiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Daniel is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Dallas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zac McGraw trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 36, with 303 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Logan Farrington trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Something was said to Lalas Abubakar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Dallas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.