Marked for Florián Monzón
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 Jan 2027
Cup progress for Atlas
A 1‑0 win over Tigres, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlas can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Santos Laguna left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Luís Esteves is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.20 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Luís Esteves at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Atlas.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gullit Peña 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 Atlas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Sánchez Purata, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 2026
No mercy from Atlas
Dorados will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Atlas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market21 Dec 2026
The bid was some way short and Atlas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match19 Dec 2026
Atlas make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market21 Dec 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atlas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A masterclass from Duk
Marked 8.64 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Luís Esteves was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
11 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Alfonso González was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Dec 2026
A hiding for Atlas
Beaten 0‑3 by Guadalajara, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Gullit Peña 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 Atlas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
Doors closed at Atlas
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jonathan Montes after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Atlas lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Ryan Mmaee has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Atlas 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
No place in the plan for Ryan Mmaee
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout14 Dec 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 Juan Sánchez Purata has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Atlas
A 0‑3 beating by Tijuana was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Gullit Peña breaks a bone — 49 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Atlas
Gullit Peña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
Doors closed at Atlas
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Jonathan Montes to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
The cruellest goal, and it is Florián Monzón's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Atlas will not try tonight.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Atlas
Something was said to Manuel Capasso and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Schlegel, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gullit Peña breaks a bone — 56 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Cruz Azul, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
The crowd has taken to Víctor Ríos
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jorge Alberto Sánchez and Atlas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Luís Esteves 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gullit Peña 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 Atlas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Atlas
17 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rodrigo Schlegel has his answer from Atlas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Florián Monzón, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match12 Sep 2026
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Gullit Peña out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Sep 2026
Atlas make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Atlas have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 10.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match12 Sep 2026
Florián Monzón among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Florián Monzón on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Atlas and Santos Laguna.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.65 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Adrián Mora and Atlas agree another 3 years.
In brief
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Squad
Atlas are still strangers to each other
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
No hiding place for Gullit Peña
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Aug 2026
6‑1, and Florián Monzón took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Atlas tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.57, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Atlas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Florián Monzón among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Florián Monzón on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Atlas and Dorados.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Duk was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
36 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Víctor Ríos
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
232 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Atlas know what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Camilo Vargas and Atlas agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Atlas
Florián Monzón 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atlas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Rivaldo Lozano again, and this time the name on the line is Morelia. Atlas are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.71, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad3 Aug 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atlas, another week without a signature from Camilo Vargas.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.