Marked for Ignacio Malcorra
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
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 ratings9 Nov 2026
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market9 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Mateo Raschia
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Raschia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Unión de Santa Fe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Unión de Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Luna Diale 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Augusto Solari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Lautaro Vargas has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Juan Martín Medina on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Matías Rocha gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Aug 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Cristian Tarragona will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Unión de Santa Fe escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Cristian Tarragona takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cristian Tarragona provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 21 days on the sidelines for Ignacio Malcorra, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market17 Aug 2026
Eibar paid $1.7M and Unión de Santa Fe took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market17 Aug 2026
Mateo Raschia has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Unión de Santa Fe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Junior Balbuena arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Junior Balbuena has, at Unión de Santa Fe, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Unión de Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Pittón 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Ignacio Malcorra wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Ignacio Malcorra found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Lanús went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 7 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ignacio Malcorra and Unión de Santa Fe agree another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
Three points for Unión de Santa Fe, 3‑2 the final word against Lanús in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mauro Pittón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unión de Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
-
Market
24 months and counting on Mauro Pittón
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
The dugout
Eric Ramírez knocks on the manager’s door