Marked for Cristopher Benítez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
Cristopher Benítez damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cruz Azul is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Cruz Azul
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Andrés Montaño 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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hansel Zapata, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Christian Ebere has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
The Erik Lira talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market12 Apr 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Víctor Tabaoda has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cruz Azul.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jeremy Márquez has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Erik Lira 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Omar Campos 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Cruz Azul than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market5 Apr 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Amaury García has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cruz Azul.
Market5 Apr 2027
The Willer Ditta story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Willer Ditta signs something — a contract at Cruz Azul or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes Jorge Rodarte a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruz Azul. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Cruz Azul
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Gabriel Fernández takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriel Fernández provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cruz Azul may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Cruz Azul, 4‑2 the final word against Atlas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Cruz Azul
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Omar Campos 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.