Marked for Kevin Lezcano
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Jul 2027
14 matches without a win for Tacuary
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Tacuary are no longer polite ones.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tacuary have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tacuary can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
No thanks: Alan Morinigo rejects the move
Tacuary had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olimpia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Julio González 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$10.0K on the table at River Plate. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Tacuary
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Héctor Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Tacuary asked and Cerro Porteno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market5 Jul 2027
Fernando Rolón is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Tacuary has been clear about where Fernando Rolón stands, which is more than many ever get.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout3 May 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.
Match1 May 2027
The wait goes on for Tacuary
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Tacuary
Julio González and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gary Tello commits to Tacuary for another 2 years.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Tacuary training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aldo González 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.
Match1 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Kevin Lezcano
“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 dugout3 May 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
Christian Cepeda damages knee ligaments — 58 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 58 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad15 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Tacuary
Julio González and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match13 Mar 2027
6 unbeaten for Tacuary
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Tacuary did not have in the autumn.
Match13 Mar 2027
Late, late show earns Tacuary a point
Minute 91, against Olimpia, 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Lezcano, and the manager let it.
Match13 Mar 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Olimpia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Víctor Barrios is on it.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Words at Tacuary training over how hard people work
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The dugout
Herminio Vera knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tacuary lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.66, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 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 Tacuary this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Aldo González 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was David Fleitas’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tacuary.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Augusto Giménez, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Diego Cardozo, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Kevin Lezcano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tacuary 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tacuary lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Hugo Flores out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tacuary will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 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 Tacuary, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Feb 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 Tacuary this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Feb 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tacuary, another week without a signature from Julio González.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I want to play”: Luis Franco speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
David Fleitas asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead1 Feb 2027
The leaders are next for Tacuary
Cerro Porteno top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Kevin Lezcano gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kevin Lezcano is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tacuary lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Hugo Flores out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tacuary will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The deal with Colón is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Tacuary
Alexis Rojas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Héctor Lezcano 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tacuary lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Dec 2026
110 days out for Oscar Murillo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tacuary will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad7 Dec 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 Tacuary this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Francisco Mongelos has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Tacuary have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Tacuary training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Héctor Lezcano 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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Libertad have kept their man, and Tacuary go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Luis Franco 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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Tacuary have made the call to Sol de America. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Oscar Murillo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Rodrigo Argüello out for 48 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tacuary will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad9 Nov 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 Tacuary this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tacuary are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Javier Vallejos asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Kevin Lezcano gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kevin Lezcano is on it.
Market9 Nov 2026
The name of David Fleitas keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Tacuary say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Tacuary
Alexis Rojas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Héctor Lezcano 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Market12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tacuary are still strangers to each other
23 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Kevin Lezcano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tacuary 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Aug 2026
Tacuary through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Fernando de la Mora, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Aldo González takes the afternoon — 8.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aldo González provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Tacuary
Alexis Rojas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market17 Aug 2026
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Tacuary will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market17 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.