Marked for Mateo Durand
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason General Diaz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Apr 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and 12 de Octubre spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Fabrício Baiano, 35, rolls back the years — 8.23
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad12 Apr 2027
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Blas Valenzuela 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
Anger at General Diaz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” General Diaz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Apr 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 General Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tomás Leuzzi 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.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Durand has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the General Diaz support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Mar 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 General Diaz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Mar 2027
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Blas Valenzuela 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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The numbers do not look good at General Diaz
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at General Diaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Flores 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
Match22 Mar 2027
5 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Mar 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 General Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Hugo Flores 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabrício Baiano, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason General Diaz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Mar 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. General Diaz scored in the 104th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Brayan Aragón goes up and wins it — 7.41
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.41 for the rest of it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Hugo Flores for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. General Diaz will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Blas Valenzuela and General Diaz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Durand has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason General Diaz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match27 Feb 2027
Chastening afternoon for General Diaz
A 1‑4 beating by Libertad was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
Match27 Feb 2027
5 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Blas Valenzuela 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The numbers do not look good at General Diaz
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at General Diaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Leuzzi 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Market1 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason General Diaz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. 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
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Adrián Reta 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 General Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager plants his flag on Hugo Benítez
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Hugo Benítez’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Sportivo Luqueno go through and General Diaz go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Torres, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Blas Valenzuela 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
No place for Hugo Benítez in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hugo Benítez has his answer from General Diaz; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Valenzuela and General Diaz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 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 General Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” David Valenzuela has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at General Diaz.
Squad3 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and General Diaz 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.