Marked for Gerónimo Blanco
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Rocha
Lukas König and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Rocha
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
The game went through Daniel Farías — 6.72
Marked 6.72 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
The afternoon belonged to Lukas König
A mark of 7.67, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Kevin Gomez: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Fabricio Vidal knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fabricio Vidal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead22 Feb 2027
The leaders are next for Rocha
Deportivo Maldonado top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. River Plate lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Triver will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around River Plate the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at River Plate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcelo Vaca commits to River Plate for another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Cristian Techera 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.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Rocha to sit and watch. I want to come back to River Plate and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Promotion for Rocha
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Lukas König 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 Rocha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Rocha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrique Etcheverry 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Rocha will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Luciano Bello is still paying for one afternoon at Rocha
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 92% of the Rocha income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Federico Chaparro, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Gerónimo Blanco has moved up it.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
$425.4K a year onto the Rocha books
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
$110.0K — a new record at Rocha
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rocha have done the hard part with River Plate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Rocha
Lukas König and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Federico Chaparro from Central Espanol for $110.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Rocha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrique Etcheverry 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Rocha will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Adrián Acevedo damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yhojan Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Franco Risso 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
River Plate have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Pablo Fernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sud America 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.