The Independiente Herald
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A debut Leonel Galván will not forget — 7.18
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.18 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market3 Aug 2026
Santiago Arias wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Independiente hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Santiago Arias signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Santiago Arias commits to Independiente for another 2 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
Independiente say no — this time
The offer from Levante for Mateo Morro was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Santiago Arias 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 Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luciano Cabral 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Mateo Pérez Curci the difference as Independiente beat Instituto
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Pérez Curci. 2‑1 against Instituto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Leonel Galván
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nobody at Independiente has picked up the phone to Rodrigo Rey
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
In brief
- Player ratings The afternoon belonged to Santiago Montiel
- Squad Too much change too quickly at Independiente
- The dugout Federico Álvarez: “That is the standard”