Marked for Alexander Díaz
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Deportivo Riestra's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Riestra has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Samuel Portillo 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Unión de Santa Fe left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Fabricio Ventresca has come up in conversations Deportivo Riestra were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gabriel Obredor 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout24 Aug 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Juan Rey to a room that had heard them before.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ángel Stringa, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Shenzhen Peng City for Fabricio Ventresca was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antony Alonso and Deportivo Riestra agree another 3 years.
Squad10 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 Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Mariano Bracamonte 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 dugout10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lucas Godoy 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Alberto Lombardi 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Benjamín Arias is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match8 Aug 2026
Boca Juniors left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.60 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Market3 Aug 2026
Algeciras come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Deportivo Riestra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Ignacio Arce
There were 6 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ignacio Arce commits to Deportivo Riestra for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Cristian Paz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
In brief
-
The dugout
Antony Alonso knocks on the manager’s door
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Market
Yeison Murillo told to find a new club