Marked for Lautaro Espeche
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Bravo, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
Gastón Lodico has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Instituto 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Gastón Lodico 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 Jan 2027
Franco Jara 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Instituto will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Franco Jara 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Lautaro Espeche is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Emanuel Sittaro has come up in conversations Instituto were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joaquín Rivero and Instituto agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 51. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Aug 2026
Defensores Unidos ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Manuel Roffo decides it from twelve yards
1 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Facundo Suárez has left for Oviedo in a $1.8M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Franco Jara 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Agustín Massaccesi 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Defensa y Justicia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The kick that got away from Oscar Garrido
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lautaro Maldonado 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.