Marked for Owen González
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
Owen González damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Match13 Nov 2027
The wait goes on for Pachuca
4 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.
Squad15 Nov 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 Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Jorge Berlanga 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.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
7.87, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Pachuca had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad15 Nov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2027
Owen González damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match23 Oct 2027
Nobody wants to play Pachuca right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match23 Oct 2027
A 1‑0 win over Veracruz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Oct 2027
Owen González damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Enner Valencia 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
A 2‑0 win over Queretaro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 48. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Owen González
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pachuca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Luis Quiñones 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Owen González. 1‑0 against Dorados, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad11 Oct 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 ratings11 Oct 2027
7.87, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Pachuca had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” William Carvalho and Pachuca agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 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 Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
No hiding place for Alan Mozo
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alan Mozo, and the manager let it.
Match2 Oct 2027
Guadalajara left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Carlos Adrián Sánchez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pachuca have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Sep 2027
Luis Quiñones 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
A bad afternoon for Pachuca against Leon
0‑1 to Leon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at Pachuca
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad27 Sep 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Sep 2027
Pachuca strike at the death to beat Toluca
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Toluca had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Pachuca did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match18 Sep 2027
Pachuca make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Pachuca have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Enner Valencia 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 1‑0 win over Toluca, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 8.39 — 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.
Market20 Sep 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Diego González wants continental football; whether Pachuca can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Salomón Rondón dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Carlos Rotondi takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Carlos Rotondi provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad13 Sep 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 Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Sep 2027
Chiapas made Pachuca work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad13 Sep 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pachuca told Viktor Baier something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pachuca, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Age has not caught Enner Valencia yet — 7.90
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad6 Sep 2027
350 appearances across 9 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Pachuca know what they have.
Market6 Sep 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. José Eulogio is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match4 Sep 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Enner Valencia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Pachuca.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pachuca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Carlos Rotondi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Pachuca.
Squad23 Aug 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 Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 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 ratings23 Aug 2027
A mark of 7.62, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match7 Aug 2027
The goals have deserted Pachuca
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pachuca can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rocco Ríos Novo, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luis Quiñones commits to Pachuca for another 1 years.
Squad9 Aug 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 Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
Jorge Berlanga is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pachuca has been clear about where Jorge Berlanga stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match7 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Cruz Azul will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pachuca can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market21 Jun 2027
The chase for Carlos Rotondi ended with $2.7M changing hands and Cruz Azul out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Sergio Barreto 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexis Macías is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 May 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 May 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 Pachuca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
Rafael Baca breaks a bone — 86 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 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 Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Feb 2027
Santos Laguna left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Lucas Cavallini
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Julio González has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Puebla 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Lucas Cavallini, 33, rolls back the years — 7.83
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Puebla right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 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 Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Lucas Cavallini’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Puebla.
Squad19 Oct 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.