Marked for Augusto Cambón
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cerro may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Cerro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Cruz Guasone 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Late, late show earns Cerro a point
Minute 94, against Nacional, 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Cerro
Maicol Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Augusto Cambón, and the manager let it.
Match14 Aug 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Cristian Ugarte after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Leonardo Pais dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Looking ahead16 Aug 2027
Liverpool Montevideo next, and one man in the Cerro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Jul 2027
Cerro taken apart
0‑3 to Juventud, 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market5 Jul 2027
Facundo Butti 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 Cerro can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Progreso; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The dugout5 Jul 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
The shirt still fits. Adriano Freitas is back at Cerro, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Door shut on Neneca
Cerro asked and Santa Clara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Cerro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emiliano Sosa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Cerro
Maicol Rodríguez 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
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Cerro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejo Macelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Cerro
Leonardo Pais and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Cristian Barros had Cerro level again within 2 minutes, and Deportivo Maldonado never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Augusto Cambón, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Alejo Macelli 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cristian Ugarte was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Cerro dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Cerro's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cerro has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Pablo Nongoy beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Nahuel Arena 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 Cerro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Mar 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cerro and Plaza Colonia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match13 Mar 2027
2‑4 to Plaza Colonia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Leonardo Pais 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Amarilla and Cerro agree another 3 years.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Emiliano Sosa
“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 dugout15 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Cristian Ugarte after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.