Marked for Iván Gómez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ignacio Vázquez 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Marcos Portillo at his very best
Marked 9.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Platense.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Tomás Nasif
At 22 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcos Portillo. 2‑0 against Lanús, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Iván Gómez 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Gauto, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ignacio Vázquez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ignacio Vázquez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Platense have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
4 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Matías Borgogno 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 ratings28 Sep 2026
The one thing Tomás Nasif could not do
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Boca Juniors, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Platense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Gómez 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 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Silva, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 5.45 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 13 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Platense's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Platense has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Matías Borgogno 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guido Mainero, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Platense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Gómez 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Instituto leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Platense
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Platense are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 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 Platense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Defensa y Justicia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Vázquez, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Iván Gómez 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
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
Defensores ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 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 Platense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Iván Gómez 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Juan Gauto
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Martín Barrios
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Ignacio Vázquez
Nobody at Platense is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 5.39. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
5.60 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Matías Borgogno 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Burgos pay $740.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Independiente, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Platense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Gómez 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Platense
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Franco Zapiola takes the afternoon — 8.63
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franco Zapiola provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Víctor Cuesta and Platense agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ignacio Vázquez 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Burgos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nicolás Sumavil. The answer from Platense has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Iván Gómez 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Iván Gómez is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Platense has been clear about where Iván Gómez stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Augusto Lotti's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.