37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Pulisic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mateo Silvetti 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 no worse way to lose a footballer. Mauro Silveira has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Darwin Núñez 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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Georgy Karkuzaev provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 The request is on a desk at LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
363 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
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.
Darwin Núñez 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.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 30 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mateusz Bogusz 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 words a physio says slowly. 59 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 1, 55 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Pulisic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. LA Galaxy scored in the 117th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
32 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“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 LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.53 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with FC Dallas the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that LA Galaxy will enjoy reviewing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LA Galaxy 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.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mateo Silvetti 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 no worse way to lose a footballer. Julián Aude has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 1, 49 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jonathan Do Marcolino has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dante Blanco wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMateo Silvetti falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsMateo Silvetti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. LA Galaxy have paid $16.6M for Georgy Karkuzaev, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. LA Galaxy have paid $5.0M for Jack Kortkamp, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Georgy Karkuzaev has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Silvetti wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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; LA Galaxy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Mateusz Bogusz 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.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
Mateo Silvetti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.93. 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 words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
32 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
27 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; LA Galaxy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The name of Luca Steffen has come up in conversations LA Galaxy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
28 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at LA Galaxy heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Pulisic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mateusz Bogusz 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: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The words a physio says slowly. 123 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.77 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alan Rodríguez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marked 9.18 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAxel Aamodt was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Luis Otávio
The words a physio says slowly. 39 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 LA Galaxy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Paul Johnson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
4‑0, and Luke Brooke-Smith took the headlines on an afternoon when everything LA Galaxy tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings7 Jun 2038
A brace, and Ehsan Azmoun takes the afternoon — 9.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ehsan Azmoun provided it, and the 9.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luke Brooke-Smith provided it, and the 9.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad31 May 2038
Darwin Núñez 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eros García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
40 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Houston Dynamo kept coming because nothing stopped them, and LA Galaxy will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 LA Galaxy know it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Paul Johnson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
10 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.51 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dante Blanco is living that version at LA Galaxy, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.51 — 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
9 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 1, 27 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Silvetti wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 34 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The offer from Portland Timbers for Luca Steffen 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ehsan Azmoun scored in the 88th minute, FC Dallas had already begun thinking about the journey home, and LA Galaxy took the lot.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luca Steffen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.62 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at LA Galaxy 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 LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
33 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
508 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.59 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at LA Galaxy heard it as anything else.
The offer from Seattle Sounders for Luca Steffen 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.19 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LA Galaxy can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Nashville SC for Zahir Yunis 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.
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 LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Match27 Mar 2038
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for LA Galaxy. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
27 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The offer from Houston Dynamo for Ahmed Magdy 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.
Mohau Nkota 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 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Francisco Cuzzani wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $22.1M has been paid because Luke Brooke-Smith is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luke Brooke-Smith is living that version at LA Galaxy, and it tends to show in the first month.
Vélez did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.7M for Agustín Cortez, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; LA Galaxy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LA Galaxy can pretend not to have heard.
370 appearances across 15 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.44 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Chicago Fire for Luca Steffen 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.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Squad8 Mar 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateusz Bogusz 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.
In brief
Boardroom10 academy players handed senior numbers at LA Galaxy
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Junaid Seedat is a LA Galaxy player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Francisco Cuzzani has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Mateusz Bogusz 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.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: San Jose Earthquakes will make the call about Zahir Yunis this week. LA Galaxy have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at LA Galaxy has been clear about where Gabriel Pec stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateusz Bogusz 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eros García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMateo Silvetti falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 LA Galaxy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Sofo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 LA Galaxy know it.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Sanabria 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.
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 LA Galaxy have had the benefit of 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 LA Galaxy 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 LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Escalante will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Silvetti wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eros García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. LA Galaxy will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Connor Sargent will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sergio Oregel 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Luis Otávio's mistake
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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. LA Galaxy will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mohammed Sofo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mohammed Sofo has agreed terms with DC United for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Pereyra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody at LA Galaxy 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.
Mateusz Bogusz 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.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at LA Galaxy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. LA Galaxy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
BoardroomThe LA Galaxy production line keeps running
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Núñez 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
Squad16 Nov 2037
A muscle injury sidelines Owen Tillman for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. LA Galaxy will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
0‑0, and a season that ran to May has ended inside a fortnight. This is what a playoff is: nine months of work settled by a couple of evenings, and nobody who designed it was thinking about the losing dressing room.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 37 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
34 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Matteo Rizzo: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“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; LA Galaxy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
2‑1 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Darwin Núñez 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Escalante will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
3‑2 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Match21 Oct 2037
Luca Steffen wins it after the whistle should have gone
107 minutes played. Luca Steffen found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and San Diego Football Club went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
Luca Steffen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.76
A mark of 8.76 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Silvetti wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eros García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.78 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings19 Oct 2037
Connor Sargent, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.77
A mark of 8.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Connor Sargent will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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; LA Galaxy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.53 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 LA Galaxy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mateo Silvetti 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 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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Darwin Núñez 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 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 LA Galaxy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
In brief
SquadDor Turgeman has become a man the manager trusts
Mateusz Bogusz 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.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
“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; LA Galaxy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. LA Galaxy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
BoardroomThe LA Galaxy production line keeps running
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.06 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Núñez 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.97 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 LA Galaxy know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Darwin Núñez. 2‑1 against Portland Timbers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Barros Schelotto wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Vancouver Whitecaps kept coming because nothing stopped them, and LA Galaxy will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 LA Galaxy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Escalante will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The shirt still fits. Jacques Mbiandjeu is back at LA Galaxy, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yuri Casermeiro has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Darwin Núñez 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eros García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Position 1, 55 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.14 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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 LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
41 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Mohau Nkota 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now LA Galaxy have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Silvetti provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2037
Luca Steffen, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 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.
The offer from FC Dallas for Luca Steffen 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. San Jose Earthquakes moved on, Kevin Prieto reports back to LA Galaxy, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Núñez 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LA Galaxy can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from San Jose Earthquakes for Ahmed Magdy 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mateusz Bogusz 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.
9 goals and a season average of 7.59. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Pec, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2037
Mateo Silvetti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.18. 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.
San Jose Earthquakes will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. LA Galaxy were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $11.7M has been paid because Nikola Radnić is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shaun Els provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nikola Radnić has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings20 Jul 2037
A brace, and Shaun Els takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shaun Els provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
32 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The offer from Los Angeles Football Club for Oufa Shobeir 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.
Mateo Silvetti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Darwin Núñez 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. LA Galaxy know it, and so does everybody who watches 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer from DC United for Owen Tillman 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.
Sergio Oregel 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.
Add another name to the list: Colorado Rapids have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luca Steffen. The answer from LA Galaxy has not changed — yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
Player ratings6 Jul 2037
Ehsan Azmoun was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.64. 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.
34 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
25 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Connor Sargent will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fernando Rodriguez has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Mohau Nkota
3 behind and going nowhere, until Ehsan Azmoun decided otherwise. St. Louis CITY SC had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
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.
5 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Silvetti wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jayden Hibbert will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
33 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.
37 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Shaun Els scored in the 87th minute, Colorado Rapids had already begun thinking about the journey home, and LA Galaxy took the lot.
499 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. El Mehdi Maouhoub will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 LA Galaxy, 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 LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Connor Sargent will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mohau Nkota at his very best
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.41 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Prieto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 May 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dor Turgeman. 1‑0 against Vancouver Whitecaps, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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.
It needed Sergio Oregel to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Houston Dynamo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Two goals and a mark of 9.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mohau Nkota 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 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.
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad11 May 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
Austin FC will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. LA Galaxy were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
350 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 deal that would have taken Oufa Shobeir to Los Angeles Football Club has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to LA Galaxy with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Sporting Kansas City for Luca Steffen 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.
Mateo Silvetti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Silvetti. 2‑1 against San Diego Football Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad27 Apr 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oufa Shobeir 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Shaun Els at his very best
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LA Galaxy can pretend not to have heard.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.35 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Add another name to the list: Houston Dynamo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zahir Yunis. The answer from LA Galaxy has not changed — yet.
In brief
SquadA move Ehsan Azmoun would have made for nothing
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at LA Galaxy heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mohau Nkota 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 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
28 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
34 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The offer from New York Red Bulls for Oufa Shobeir 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.55 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
338 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at LA Galaxy heard it as anything else.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.79 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 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 LA Galaxy know it.
27 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bloemfontein Celtic did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $17.9M for Shaun Els, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer from Vancouver Whitecaps for Agustín Nogueira 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.
31 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Shaun Els has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 34 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LA Galaxy can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
26 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now LA Galaxy have 10 straight wins of it.
Player ratings9 Mar 2037
A brace, and Mohau Nkota takes the afternoon — 9.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohau Nkota provided it, and the 9.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Nogueira will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matt Wright has just signed for LA Galaxy, and for once the answer mattered.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 LA Galaxy, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 LA Galaxy hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mohau Nkota 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.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: CF Montreal will make the call about Agustín Nogueira this week. LA Galaxy have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
Boardroom12 academy players handed senior numbers at LA Galaxy
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Philadelphia Union for Justin Pulisic 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: New York Red Bulls will make the call about Oufa Shobeir this week. LA Galaxy have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Oufa Shobeir 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Colorado Rapids for Agustín Nogueira 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Silvetti wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Fernándes Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mohau Nkota 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 words a physio says slowly. 80 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mateo Silvetti 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. LA Galaxy know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
BoardroomThe LA Galaxy production line keeps running
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 LA Galaxy have had the benefit of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LA Galaxy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LA Galaxy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LA Galaxy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Oufa Shobeir 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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. LA Galaxy will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mohau Nkota 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 name of Axel Aamodt has come up in conversations LA Galaxy were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
In brief
SquadWords at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
25 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
41 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at LA Galaxy heard it as anything else.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexis Sinisterra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Fernándes Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around LA Galaxy the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mohau Nkota 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.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Words at LA Galaxy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Silvetti 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Barros Schelotto wants continental football; whether LA Galaxy can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
2‑0, and a name the town will attach to this for as long as anybody remembers the season. Mohau Nkota did it in the one match where doing it is worth more than doing it beautifully.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 39 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Position 1, 62 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑0 does it. One match from everything the season was for — the largest morning a club can have without having actually won anything, and the one every supporter would take right now anyway.
24 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.19 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
23 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.
4‑0 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LA Galaxy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
32 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
6 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
In brief
Player ratingsMateusz Bogusz, 35, rolls back the years — 9.06
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LA Galaxy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mateo Silvetti 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LA Galaxy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Frank Junior Adjei is living that version at LA Galaxy, and it tends to show in the first month.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luis Otávio signs something — a contract at LA Galaxy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.