Marked for Brian Blando
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Federico Montiel damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match11 Sep 2027
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Agropecuario Argentino has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Carlos Auzqui, 36, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Damián Lemos 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 Agropecuario Argentino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Molina 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.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Colón spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Agropecuario Argentino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Damián Lemos 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 Agropecuario Argentino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Barrera 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Roque Maisterra
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Agropecuario Argentino support went home talking about one name.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Santiago Gallucci Otero will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Agropecuario Argentino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Damián Lemos 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 Jun 2027
Lorenzo Barrera 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.
Match26 Jun 2027
0‑2 to Temperley, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Damián Lemos
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Germán Salort has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Agropecuario Argentino 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.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 Agropecuario Argentino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Feb 2027
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Agropecuario Argentino has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Agropecuario Argentino did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Damián Lemos 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad1 Mar 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Matías Molina 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I watch every Agropecuario Argentino game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Apollon runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Damián Lemos 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 Agropecuario Argentino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Molina 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.