Marked for Jonathan Vaal
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 14 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Santos Laguna, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruz Azul have kept their man, and Dorados go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Dorados
José Joaquín Martínez 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
An offer of $39.0K for Josué Díaz
Dorados have gone to Cruz Azul with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Dorados
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Galicia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Leonardo Vargas
“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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Dorados 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
12 new faces, and Dorados are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
2‑5 to Veracruz, 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Salvador Manríquez and Dorados agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 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 Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Dorados and Veracruz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Dorados
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Arcadio García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jesus Jimenez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Arcadio García and Dorados agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Dorados
Luis Arcadio García 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Carlos Galicia 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Gerardo Moreno left the room before anybody could ask which.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Dorados have made the call to San Martín. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.