Marked for Adrián Arregui
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2027
1‑4 to Atletico Bucaramanga, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market5 Apr 2027
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Salvador Ichazo 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yony González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Miguel Ramirez after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gerónimo Mancilla is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2027
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Independiente Medellin has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente Medellin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Juan Farías 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. Juan Farías has, at Independiente Medellin, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yony González 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrián Arregui, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Miguel Ramirez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Diego Herazo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente Medellin 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente Medellin lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match6 Feb 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Independiente Medellin have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yony González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 2‑0 win over Envigado, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alianza Petrolera waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Independiente Medellin is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Salvador Ichazo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Yony González 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Javier Angulo slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Javier Angulo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market4 Jan 2027
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes Alexis Serna a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Independiente Medellin. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Dec 2026
Huracán say no — this time
The offer from Estudiantes for Juan Bisanz 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Huracán people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Huracán asked and Club America said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Leonardo Gil 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The fee is $100.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Almirante Brown drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Huracán will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Wages are the subject a dressing room never discusses and always knows. Everybody at Huracán has now done the sum, and nobody is saying it out loud.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Independiente Medellin may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 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 Independiente Medellin this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frank Fabra 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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 Joaquín Varela is on it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Halam Loboa knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Halam Loboa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Didier Moreno has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Huracán lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huracán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Alexis Dulón
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexis Dulón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Leonardo Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
Belgrano left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Ignacio Pussetto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match10 Oct 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Ignacio Pussetto had Huracán level again within 2 minutes, and Belgrano never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.