0‑4 against Sportivo Ameliano, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Libertad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Oscar Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around 12 de Junio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. 12 de Junio have done the hard part with Sportivo Ameliano, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vicente Martínez has agreed terms with Sportivo San Lorenzo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at 12 de Junio
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” 12 de Junio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Oscar Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Derlis Alegre 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sol de America have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Independiente CG will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Oscar Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
A 2‑1 win over Independiente CG, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The dugout14 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Diego Cubas kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutJuan Sánchez knocks on the manager’s door
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 May 2029
Marcos Urán 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.
Boardroom7 May 2029
117% of the income goes out in wages at 12 de Junio
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Diego Rodríguez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Diego Cubas after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
7 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.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Derlis Alegre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 89, against Encarnacion, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
Match7 Mar 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about 12 de Junio and Libertad in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Derlis Alegre 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.
Resistencia will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. 12 de Junio were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
A brace, and Oscar Cabrera takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oscar Cabrera provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
A brace, and Derlis Alegre takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Derlis Alegre provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
7 goals in one match, Derlis Alegre on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of 12 de Junio and Resistencia.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Position 14 and 28 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Javier Medina is living that version at 12 de Junio, and it tends to show in the first month.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Estigarribia 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.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at 12 de Junio is running low.
Position 14 and 28 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Estigarribia 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Braian Tolaba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. 12 de Junio told José Estigarribia something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 14 and 28 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at 12 de Junio
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 198% of the 12 de Junio income
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1‑4 to Guairena, 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Santiago Aquino is living that version at 12 de Junio, and it tends to show in the first month.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at 12 de Junio pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Carlos Kiese 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at 12 de Junio can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. 12 de Junio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑4 against Independiente CG, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Carlos Kiese 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Guillermo Ríos’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and 12 de Junio needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” 12 de Junio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Cubas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodrigo Argüello and 12 de Junio agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
6 goals in one match, Juan Cáceres on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of 12 de Junio and Tacuary.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at 12 de Junio is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Reinaldo Benítez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at 12 de Junio has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
The offer went to Libertad this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. 12 de Junio will try again when the window opens; Pastoreo may not be selling by then.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Libertad is saying, and nobody at 12 de Junio is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to 2 de Mayo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Libertad this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.