Marked for Benjamín Acosta
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2032
A fracture rules Leandro Azurez out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match27 Mar 2032
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Rampla Juniors are no longer polite ones.
Squad29 Mar 2032
A one-man rearguard from Rodrigo Fumo
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.
Squad29 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Mar 2032
No clean sheets in sight for Rampla Juniors
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jesús Trindade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Mar 2032
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
Yamil García gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2032
14 days out for Rodrigo Bogarín after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rampla Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match17 Mar 2032
Out, 1‑2 to Miramar Misiones, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match20 Mar 2032
No end in sight to Rampla Juniors's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rampla Juniors has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market22 Mar 2032
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yamil García 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match20 Mar 2032
Racing left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2032
A fracture rules Rodrigo Bogarín out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Mar 2032
Juan Díaz hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rampla Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rampla Juniors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Rodrigo Bogarín 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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Yamil García 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.
Match28 Feb 2032
Defensor Sporting left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
The manager makes an example of Juan Díaz
“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.
Market1 Mar 2032
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Feb 2032
A fracture rules Rodrigo Bogarín out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom9 Feb 2032
Pressure builds in the Rampla Juniors boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Rodrigo Bogarín 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.
Squad9 Feb 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ismael Tejería commits to Rampla Juniors for another 3 years.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Ángel Llanes 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.
Boardroom9 Feb 2032
87% of the income goes out in wages at Rampla Juniors
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“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.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Benjamín Acosta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market9 Feb 2032
The Kevin Alaniz story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kevin Alaniz signs something — a contract at Rampla Juniors or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom15 Dec 2031
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Boardroom15 Dec 2031
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.
Squad15 Dec 2031
14 days out for Ignacio Silva after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Rampla Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom15 Dec 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Rampla Juniors
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match15 Dec 2031
53 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market15 Dec 2031
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Dec 2031
The bid was some way short and Rampla Juniors did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom15 Dec 2031
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Jesús Trindade 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad16 Sep 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bruno Carmarán
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Lorenzo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Sep 2030
The small margins put San Lorenzo out
Out, 3‑3 to Boca Juniors, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market16 Sep 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Branco Salinardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around San Lorenzo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Alexis Cuello 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Tripichio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match14 Sep 2030
1‑2 to Banfield, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings16 Sep 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.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Marked 8.15 — 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.