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.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Pumas UNAM have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pumas UNAM, another week without a signature from Heinz Mörschel.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juninho provided it, and the 9.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nathan Silva 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.
Marked 8.82 — 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Heinz Mörschel is living that version at Pumas UNAM, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Nathan Silva 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.
7 goals in one match, Uriel Antuna on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Pumas UNAM and Chiapas.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Juninho 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Álvaro Angulo wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The phone has started ringing about Santiago López again, and this time the name on the line is Austin FC. Pumas UNAM are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nathan Silva 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.