Marked for Gabriel Chocobar
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolás Bertocchi
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cerro Largo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cerro Largo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Aug 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 Cerro Largo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
Nicolás Bertocchi damages knee ligaments — 127 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
Market28 Jun 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Gabriel Chocobar: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cerro Largo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Up for the corner, and Santiago Franca delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Santiago Franca scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market28 Jun 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Carabobo moved on, Sebastián Camacho reports back to Cerro Largo, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Cerro Largo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Assis 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Juan Moreno
“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.
Match26 Jun 2027
No time for Colon to settle
The goal that put Colon ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Cerro Largo equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Match26 Jun 2027
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolás Bertocchi
167 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cerro Largo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match19 May 2027
Plaza Colonia are out and Cerro Largo go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad24 May 2027
Juan Moreno 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 Cerro Largo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 May 2027
Whatever happens, Cerro Largo do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match22 May 2027
The run at home goes on for Cerro Largo
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad24 May 2027
Sebastián Assis 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 terraces24 May 2027
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Enrique Almeida was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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 ratings24 May 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.76 on the card, and the Cerro Largo support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 May 2027
No end in sight to Cerro Largo's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cerro Largo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Cerro Largo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Assis 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Correa, and the manager let it.
Player ratings3 May 2027
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match1 May 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Oriental defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Juan Moreno 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 Cerro Largo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Cerro Largo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Sellecchia 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gabriel Chocobar asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sebastián Assis 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Chocobar and Cerro Largo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Julián Pou 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Juan Moreno 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 Cerro Largo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sebastián Assis 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gabriel Chocobar asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Juan Moreno 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Chocobar, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months and counting on Juan Moreno
Still no offer on the table, and Juan Moreno’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Facundo da Costa's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Matías Fracchia dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
No place for Borys Barone in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Borys Barone has his answer from Cerro Largo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.