The Nacional Sentinel
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Leandro Meza beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 40. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Santiago Rojas decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match12 Aug 2026
Nacional through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Sportivo Trinidense, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market17 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Joel Figueredo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joel Figueredo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sebastián Vargas 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 Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Rodrigo Burgos in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nacional are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Luis Gimenez: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Nacional
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Julián Benítez
Nobody at Nacional is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
In brief
- The dugout Orlando Gaona Lugo looked after by the staff
- The terraces The press have found their man in Santiago Rojas
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Carlos Espínola