Marked for Leandro Caballero
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Apr 2029
15 days out for Luis Gutiérrez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Encarnacion will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Mario Smith: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Encarnacion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Juan Ojeda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Apr 2029
0‑2 to Guairena, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Diego Aguada
“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 ratings23 Apr 2029
Juan Cano could not find anything
4.36. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Juan Cano is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Looking ahead23 Apr 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Deportivo Capiata in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sol de America keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Florencio Yudis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Still no name above the door at Encarnacion
Day 11 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Juan Ojeda 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 ratings12 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Nobody on the pitch touched Kevin Arrúa
7.78, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Encarnacion had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad12 Feb 2029
7 new faces, and Encarnacion 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.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Wages eat 88% of everything Encarnacion earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Roberto Enciso has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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 Encarnacion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
The deal with Olimpia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Guido Verdún and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Encarnacion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Ojeda 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.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
A loan move for Thyago Meza is in the works
Encarnacion have made the call to Sol de America. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market4 Dec 2028
No place for Diego Aguada in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Diego Aguada has his answer from Encarnacion; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Avel Medina asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Sep 2028
Guido Verdún 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 Encarnacion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Ojeda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Mauro Gómez
“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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Guido Verdún 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 Encarnacion, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Encarnacion will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market11 Sep 2028
The shop window has Simón Peña in it
Encarnacion have let the market know Simón Peña can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Aug 2028
Guido Verdún 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 Encarnacion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Mauro Gómez 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Everybody at Encarnacion saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Avel Medina beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Mauro Gómez 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 dugout14 Aug 2028
The team sheet said everything about Simón Peña
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Simón Peña.
Market14 Aug 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Encarnacion, another week without a signature from Alex Báez.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roberto Enciso after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jul 2028
The knee: Mario Smith out for 22 days
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Encarnacion lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Simón Peña has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Encarnacion is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Guido Verdún 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Encarnacion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Ojeda 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Encarnacion asked and Sportivo Ameliano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Jul 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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 Roberto Enciso left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad31 Jul 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Encarnacion are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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.
In brief
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The dugout
No place for Blas Díaz on the big day
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Market
The window shut and Juan Ojeda is still in the building
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Market
Encarnacion shop where it costs nothing
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jan 2028
Iván Paniagua breaks a bone — 58 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Capiata can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olimpia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Alexis Rojas 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.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Deportivo Capiata now.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guarani have kept their man, and Deportivo Capiata go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
7 new faces, and Deportivo Capiata 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Sol de America have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Nacional have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Dec 2027
Iván Paniagua breaks a bone — 73 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market27 Dec 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.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo Capiata have done the hard part with Olimpia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Iván Paniagua 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 targets27 Dec 2027
Cerro Porteno wanted more than $40.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Rojas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cerro Porteno have kept their man, and Deportivo Capiata go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Hugo Noguera 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 dugout27 Dec 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo Capiata told Pablo Ortellado something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Dec 2027
96 days out for Iván Paniagua after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Capiata will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market6 Dec 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.
Market6 Dec 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Deportivo Capiata have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
The deal with Nacional is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Guarani is saying, and nobody at Deportivo Capiata is enjoying the guessing.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Alexis Rojas 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.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Nov 2027
Alexis Rojas 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Erick Rossi is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
José Aja 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.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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 Nov 2027
Words at Deportivo Capiata training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Pomes 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Something was said to Hugo Noguera and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Erick Rossi without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Erick Rossi was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Marcelo Garcete has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Iván Paniagua
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Capiata lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom25 Oct 2027
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Deportivo Capiata is running low.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Deportivo Capiata may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Iván Paniagua and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Deportivo Capiata training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Rojas 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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Caballero, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
Iván Paniagua damages knee ligaments — 52 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad20 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 Deportivo Capiata this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Rojas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Martín Núñez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportivo Capiata 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Éver Cáceres 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 Éver Cáceres trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes José Aja a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Deportivo Capiata. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market20 Sep 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Leandro Caballero may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Deportivo Capiata scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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 Deportivo Capiata, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Rojas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Éver Cáceres beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Caballero, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The team sheet said everything about Alejandro Ayala
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Alejandro Ayala.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marked 7.87 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Deportivo Capiata had the best player on the pitch.
In brief
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Squad
Juan Sánchez in a row with a teammate
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Alejandro Ayala
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict