1‑1 against Vasco da Gama, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Eric Ramírez was at the centre of the description.
Ignacio Malcorra 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Cristian Tarragona will call it something else in private.
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 Franco Fragapane is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unión de Santa Fe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric Ramírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Unión de Santa Fe 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Unión de Santa Fe. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unión de Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ignacio Malcorra 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric Ramírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
1‑1 against Deportes Tolima, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unión de Santa Fe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Instituto, 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.
Ignacio Malcorra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mauro Pittón 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Cristian Tarragona.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Ignacio Malcorra 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 Eric Ramírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Mauro Pittón is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Bruno Ferrari after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
1‑4 against Vasco da Gama. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unión de Santa Fe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Eric Ramírez takes the afternoon — 9.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eric Ramírez provided it, and the 9.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Ignacio Malcorra 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Eric Ramírez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ignacio Malcorra has come out of that comparison in the side, and Unión de Santa Fe have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Talleres will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Unión de Santa Fe were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Marked 9.61. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Unión de Santa Fe.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Eric Ramírez 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Eric Ramírez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
“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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Bruno Ferrari, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ignacio Malcorra provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Unión de Santa Fe and Deportivo Riestra in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ignacio Malcorra. 4‑2 against Deportivo Riestra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mauro Pittón 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ignacio Malcorra 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.
A 2‑1 win over Central Córdoba SdE, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout17 Aug 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.” Bruno Ferrari kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nicolas Zenclussen and Unión de Santa Fe agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Ramírez 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrón has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ricardo Ibáñez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristian Figueroa has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
9 combined actions and 7.48. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“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.
Ignacio Malcorra 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.
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.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Still no offer on the table, and Mauro Pittón’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.