Marked for Lima
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Celta for Kevin Álvarez 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Henry Martín, 33, rolls back the years — 7.81
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Malagón, and the manager let it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Miguel Vázquez again, and this time the name on the line is Chiapas. Club America are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lima 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
José Raúl Zúñiga 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A point taken on 95 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
It needed Miguel Borja to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Veracruz, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kevin Guardado after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
Atlas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Club America did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Santos Laguna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Club America is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.24, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Puebla, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lima 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 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 Club America this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Club America hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alejandro Zendejas commits to Club America for another 4 years.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Fernando Tapia has come up in conversations Club America were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 Club America can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Lima 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.
Squad3 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 Club America this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Club America
12 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.