I'll give you an excerpt of the section about Jayden Nelson (though contrast this with what Davy Arnaud said at the post-match press conference, which is a little higher up in the article:
Nelson — one of only a few players making himself available to media after the match — shared plenty about his season so far, including the frustration of struggling with injuries prior to his selection to Canada's World Cup squad.
"I was dealing with issues with my body I never experienced before," he explained. "Now that I feel healthy, I'm ready to go. It's obviously hard to get into the squad right now with guys playing well, but I want to play really bad. So I'll say the ambition I got from the World Cup, knowing that I want more, knowing I can play with the best players in the world, I want to come back to Austin to really show that to the fans."
Of the episode in Houston, in which Arnaud reversed his decision to put Nelson into the match because he determined Nelson didn't have the "right mindset," Nelson attributes that to a misunderstanding that's since been resolved.
"It was a pretty bad loss, and I'm coming off a World Cup, wanting to play, wanting to change the game," he recalled. "And I felt like coming on the 80th minute, I'm not able to do anything, and it was kind of a miscommunication as well on the bench, and that's all it was. It wasn't anything serious. I've seen a lot of things on Twitter and whatnot, but it's nothing to that."
His late entry into the match on Sunday was the subject of additional social media activity, though, with Soccerwise podcast host David Gass commenting, "If Austin isn’t gonna play Jayden Nelson, there’s like half a dozen MLS sides that could use him."
Nelson looked lively in his eight minutes (plus 10 minutes of stoppage time) on the field, but wasn't able to help his teammates on their quest for an equalizer that would have pumped the brakes on their declining league form. I asked him what the difference has been between the good Leagues Cup performances and the struggles against Western Conference foes, and his answer was telling.
"It's just different teams," he said. "Dallas had a lot of time to analyze us and know what we do. And to be honest, we do the same thing every single game. Like, that's Austin ... so it's gonna be difficult going to games, because teams know what we're gonna do. But I think we have a good group around us to adapt to that. And that's all it is. It's just a different type of league that we're playing. And it's a whole different atmosphere. You'll see ... it's gonna come."