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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Taha Habroune, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.95
A mark of 7.95 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sam Surridge and Columbus Crew agree another 4 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Columbus Crew heard it as anything else.
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 Ethan Kohler is on it.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Columbus Crew has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 34 with 272 appearances behind him, and Columbus Crew have to plan for both answers.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Columbus Crew can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Sam Surridge has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sean Zawadzki signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Andrés Herrera’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
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.
Maurice Malone 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Columbus Crew have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Garrison Tubbs'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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dor Turgeman’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Columbus Crew needing him to play as if none of it matters.
DC United will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Columbus Crew were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. DC United tried to reorganise, Columbus Crew did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Maurice Malone 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Maurice Malone.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” DeAndre Dempsey was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Columbus Crew dressing room was either.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Columbus Crew $610.0K. Dylan Chambost left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Columbus Crew can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marked 6.91 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Brais Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Jamal Thiaré 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market20 Sep 2027
Tristan Brown returns from a loan that gave him nothing
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” DeAndre Dempsey after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Leonardo Barroso
“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 Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Columbus Crew pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against FC Cincinnati? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Columbus Crew heard it as anything else.
“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 Columbus Crew know it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Andrés Herrera is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Columbus Crew than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
Dinamo Moscow paid $15.6M and Columbus Crew took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kenji Cabrera wants continental football; whether Columbus Crew can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Andrés Herrera 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Columbus Crew know now that the thought has arrived.
“I watch every Columbus Crew game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at San Diego Football Club runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
New York Red Bulls left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maurice Malone 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.
Jamal Thiaré 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.
“I did not go to DC United to sit and watch. I want to come back to Columbus Crew and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by DeAndre Dempsey to a room that had heard them before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Columbus Crew offered $49.0K; Austin FC said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mark Tillman has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. David Acosta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dylan Sargent has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wessam Abou Ali. 1‑0 against Toronto FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
Vancouver Whitecaps paid $6.8M and Columbus Crew took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Columbus Crew close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 18 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 Chicago Fire, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to Austin FC this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Los Angeles Football Club paid $660.0K and Columbus Crew took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Columbus Crew people have started saying his name in the past tense.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Columbus Crew heard it as anything else.
A 1‑0 win over Philadelphia Union, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Jamal Thiaré 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.
“I watch every Columbus Crew game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at San Diego Football Club runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Position 3, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sam Surridge wants continental football; whether Columbus Crew can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Patrick Schulte 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.
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
“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 Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Columbus Crew have done the hard part with Toronto FC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
In brief
Looking aheadThe big one: New York City come into view
SquadMohamed Farsi falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Columbus Crew have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Everything agreed with San Jose Earthquakes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The name of Jack Lynn has come up in conversations Columbus Crew were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Columbus Crew have made the call to Chicago Fire. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
30 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Columbus Crew, and 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrés Herrera. 1‑0 against Charlotte Football Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mohamed Farsi 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
27 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Ethan Kohler 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.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Sean Zawadzki has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukas MacNaughton trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Schulte, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Anass Zaroury was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, DeAndre Dempsey could afford to be generous.
Sam Surridge 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 easiest signature of my career.” Hugo Picard and Columbus Crew agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Mohamed Farsi 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.
“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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” DeAndre Dempsey was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Columbus Crew dressing room was either.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Columbus Crew has been clear about where Nicholas Hagen stands, which is more than many ever get.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Philadelphia Union will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Patrick Schulte 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Minute 85, against CF Montreal, 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.
In brief
Loan watchNəriman Axundzadə is tired of being somebody else's player
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Hugo Picard 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” DeAndre Dempsey on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 May 2027
A brace, and Sam Surridge takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sam Surridge provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.17. 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.
“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 Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Nashville SC; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
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 DeAndre Dempsey left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 May 2027
6 new faces, and Columbus Crew 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.
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.
Brais Méndez wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Brais Méndez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and New York Red Bulls went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Ethan Kohler 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 dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” DeAndre Dempsey kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Columbus Crew have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Columbus Crew heard it as anything else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Hugo Picard reports back to Columbus Crew with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Sam Surridge 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.
A 2‑0 win over Orlando City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑0 win over Philadelphia Union, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Steven Moreira, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
5 new faces, and Columbus Crew 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” DeAndre Dempsey on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Columbus Crew man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Brais Méndez was the best thing in any of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Columbus Crew have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Columbus Crew heard it as anything else.
A 1‑0 win over New York City, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hugo Picard commits to Columbus Crew for another 4 years.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Brais Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Jamal Thiaré 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A last season at home is what Rudy Camacho is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
A 2‑1 win over New England Revolution, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Up for the corner, and Amar Sejdic delivers — 7.87
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Amar Sejdic scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Andrés Herrera 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 6.78 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Mohamed Farsi 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe game went through Anass Zaroury — 6.75
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New York Red Bulls have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Herrera signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jamal Thiaré’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Columbus Crew needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Columbus Crew would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” DeAndre Dempsey after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
“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 Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Columbus Crew can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mohamed Farsi 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Wessam Abou Ali wants continental football; whether Columbus Crew can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Columbus Crew have more foreign players than the form allows, and he is the one without a place on it. He will train with a side he is not permitted to play for until the next window.
Minnesota United FC paid $1.7M and Columbus Crew took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Everything agreed with St. Louis CITY SC, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
“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 Columbus Crew know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Portland Timbers have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Columbus Crew know it.
Patrick Schulte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mohamed Farsi 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.
A rule about passports rather than about football has decided he cannot play. Columbus Crew had more of them than the form allows, and somebody had to be the name that did not fit.
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 Amar Sejdic is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Herrera signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The offer from Minnesota United FC for Dylan Chambost 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.
Everything agreed with Real Salt Lake, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Columbus Crew has been clear about where Malte Amundsen stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Minnesota United FC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dylan Chambost. The answer from Columbus Crew has not changed — yet.
Lautaro Giaccone 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.
Columbus Crew asked and Real Salt Lake 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Columbus Crew has been clear about where Andrés Herrera stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Columbus Crew know now that the thought has arrived.
A loan enquiry to Minnesota United FC: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Jack Lynn 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Columbus Crew can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mohamed Farsi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Columbus Crew can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Herrera signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Columbus Crew would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
20 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josef Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Columbus Crew know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Mohamed Farsi 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tristan Brown and Columbus Crew agree another 4 years.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Columbus Crew that is a harder question to answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Columbus Crew would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sean Zawadzki and Columbus Crew agree another 5 years.
Patrick Schulte 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Columbus Crew are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Columbus Crew will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
At 19 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.
“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; Columbus Crew are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nəriman Axundzadə 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 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 Amar Sejdic is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Herrera signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Columbus Crew, another week without a signature from Garrison Tubbs.
20 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Columbus Crew know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Columbus Crew. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Mohamed Farsi 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.
Jack Lynn 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.
“I watch every Columbus Crew game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Philadelphia Union runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Columbus Crew have had the benefit of it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dylan Chambost trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Columbus Crew. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
At 19 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
20 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mohamed Farsi 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.
“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; Columbus Crew are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Patrick Schulte 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Santiago Rodríguez has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Columbus Crew have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jamal Thiaré 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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 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 Rudy Camacho has written the date down.
Gonzalo Tapia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Herrera signs something — a contract at Columbus Crew or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Wessam Abou Ali is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Columbus Crew. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicholas Hagen has his answer from Columbus Crew; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Santiago Rodríguez has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicholas Hagen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Wessam Abou Ali will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Columbus Crew escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 matches without defeat, and then New England Revolution. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tristan Brown and Columbus Crew agree another 4 years.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It needed Wessam Abou Ali to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against New England Revolution, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nəriman Axundzadə and Columbus Crew agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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; Columbus Crew are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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 Amar Sejdic is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
19 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Columbus Crew can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Wessam Abou Ali in the middle of it, and DC United unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Jamal Thiaré 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.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Chicago Fire spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Gonzalo Tapia 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.
11 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.
Marked 7.74. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” DeAndre Dempsey, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Columbus Crew have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Dylan Chambost has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Shots: 7. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
In brief
The dugoutJamal Thiaré knocks on the manager's door
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Wessam Abou Ali commits to Columbus Crew for another 5 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Marked 8.30 — 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Columbus Crew, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” DeAndre Dempsey, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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 Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Dylan Chambost reports back to Columbus Crew with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Columbus Crew than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
0‑3 to Nashville SC, 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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Columbus Crew would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
New York Red Bulls will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Columbus Crew were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
CF Montreal will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Matty Longstaff has pre-agreed a move to Columbus Crew, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Brais Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
“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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” DeAndre Dempsey, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Out, 1‑2 to St. Louis CITY SC, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. San Diego Football Club moved on, Rudy Camacho reports back to Columbus Crew, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.73 beside his name.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Amar Sejdic was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
In brief
SquadMohamed Farsi falls out with a teammate over standards
Squad12 new faces, and Columbus Crew are still learning each other
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lokeren-Temse had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Columbus Crew close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 2 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.
Marked 6.83 on 18 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
DC United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Garrison Tubbs has pre-agreed a move to Columbus Crew, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Jamal Thiaré 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New York City have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Connor Reyna has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Columbus Crew hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
André Gomes 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.
Add another name to the list: Lokeren-Temse have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dylan Chambost. The answer from Columbus Crew has not changed — yet.
“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 Columbus Crew know it.