Marked for Ignacio Galván
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match11 Sep 2028
Racing Club are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Adrián Martínez, 36, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market11 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Germán Conti has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market11 Sep 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Marcos Acuña 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.
Match9 Sep 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Racing Club did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Matko Miljevic 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Jul 2028
Racing Club throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Tigre the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Racing Club will enjoy reviewing.
Market17 Jul 2028
The offer from Maccabi Tel Aviv for Nikola Vasilj 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Racing Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Marcos Acuña 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Matko Miljevic 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Vasilj, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Racing Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market26 Jun 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market26 Jun 2028
Lucas Wolfert has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Racing Club they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Marcos Acuña 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 Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matko Miljevic 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
The name of Tobías Rubio has come up in conversations Racing Club were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jun 2028
Veracruz come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Racing Club did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Marcos Acuña 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Sarmiento paid $420.0K and Racing Club took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market19 Jun 2028
Add another name to the list: Mitre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ignacio Galván. The answer from Racing Club has not changed — yet.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Matko Miljevic 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Racing Club will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Loan watch19 Jun 2028
“I watch every Racing Club game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at St. Gallen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 May 2028
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 2‑0 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
Market29 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Racing Club they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match24 May 2028
Nobody wants to play Racing Club right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad29 May 2028
Marcos Acuña 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 Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matko Miljevic 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 ratings29 May 2028
Elías Torres was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Squad29 May 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Racing Club told Nikola Vasilj something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad29 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Matías Pérez
“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.
Market29 May 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Club know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.