17 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.
San Martín de Burzaco will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Comunicaciones were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Comunicaciones have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Joaquín Ibáñez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexandro Maidana 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Comunicaciones scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alexandro Maidana did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.55 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
13 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Comunicaciones is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexandro Maidana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 The request is on a desk at Comunicaciones, and it is not being withdrawn.
Joaquín Ibáñez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Comunicaciones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Callejas 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Comunicaciones, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Los Andes next, and one man in the Comunicaciones dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Comunicaciones know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Comunicaciones 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Facundo Fabello and Comunicaciones agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergio Sosa. 2‑0 against Deportivo Laferrere, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Comunicaciones is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 Comunicaciones have had the benefit of it.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Comunicaciones told Facundo González something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maximiliano Brambillo signs something — a contract at Comunicaciones or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutSebastián Gallo has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Comunicaciones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Deportivo Armenio; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Comunicaciones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Callejas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Comunicaciones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Facundo Fabello and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Words at Comunicaciones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Conrado Puigdellivol is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pablo Ruiz is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sergio Campos could afford to be generous.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 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 Comunicaciones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over Villa Dálmine, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonzalo Zabala was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Sergio Campos could afford to be generous.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Zabala is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aarón Barquett trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Facundo Fabello was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Conrado Puigdellivol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sergio Campos kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Comunicaciones will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Comunicaciones, another week without a signature from Conrado Puigdellivol.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Abdel Razack has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Comunicaciones have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maximiliano Brambillo. 2‑0 against Argentino de Merlo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Comunicaciones know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Sergio Sosa has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gonzalo Zabala’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Comunicaciones needing him to play as if none of it matters.