Marked for Lisandro Silva
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market29 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Defensores Unidos can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Jul 2030
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market29 Jul 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Defensores Unidos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Luis Olivera 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 Defensores Unidos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Jul 2030
1‑2 to Temperley, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings29 Jul 2030
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
“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 ratings29 Jul 2030
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Apr 2030
0‑1 against San Lorenzo, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market29 Apr 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Defensores Unidos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Apr 2030
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Defensores Unidos are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad29 Apr 2030
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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Martín Giménez 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.
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
Marked 8.32 — 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.
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lisandro Silva and Defensores Unidos agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Mar 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Defensores Unidos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Martín Giménez 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.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.83, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad18 Mar 2030
“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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Tiziano Girard knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Defensores Unidos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Feb 2030
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market18 Feb 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Defensores Unidos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Feb 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Martín Giménez 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.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
A performance of 8.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
The manager makes an example of Lisandro Silva
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Defensores Unidos can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Defensores Unidos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Dec 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tomás Ferreyra signs something — a contract at Defensores Unidos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market31 Dec 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Stefan Herrera 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 Stefan Herrera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market31 Dec 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lautaro Cipollone may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Hernán Castillo has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Defensores Unidos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match1 Sep 2029
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Defensores Unidos are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Lautaro Disanto 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.
Match1 Sep 2029
1‑2 to Mitre, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Sep 2029
“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.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Sep 2029
9 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market3 Sep 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lautaro Disanto signs something — a contract at Defensores Unidos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Aug 2029
1‑4 to Colón, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Defensores Unidos is running low.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Defensores Unidos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Luis Olivera
“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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
Nobody left the Defensores Unidos dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad27 Aug 2029
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Igors Jurkovskis knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market27 Aug 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Defensores Unidos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Apr 2029
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market30 Apr 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Defensores Unidos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Defensores Unidos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Apr 2029
0‑2 to Colón, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Luis Olivera
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Defensores Unidos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.