Marked for Facundo Sanchez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Aug 2036
12 matches without defeat, and then Flandria. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Market1 Sep 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Martínez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UAI Urquiza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Sep 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juan Pablo Arango commits to UAI Urquiza for another 4 years.
Squad1 Sep 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Aug 2036
Leonardo Díaz scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Flandria, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad1 Sep 2036
Rafael Hornos 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 dugout1 Sep 2036
“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.
Market1 Sep 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at UAI Urquiza, another week without a signature from Facundo Sanchez.
Squad1 Sep 2036
The formation has left Lucas Ferreira behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. UAI Urquiza will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jun 2036
“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.
Squad2 Jun 2036
Rafael Hornos 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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2036
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at UAI Urquiza now.
Squad2 Jun 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Oroná was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Jun 2036
No place for Bréiner Pino in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bréiner Pino has his answer from UAI Urquiza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout2 Jun 2036
The manager makes an example of Felix Mosquera
“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.
Match2 Jun 2036
Halfway: UAI Urquiza sit in position 5
36 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Market2 Jun 2036
“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.
Player ratings2 Jun 2036
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.92 on the card, and the UAI Urquiza support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Mar 2036
Nobody wants to play UAI Urquiza right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market10 Mar 2036
“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.
Player ratings10 Mar 2036
Up for the corner, and Facundo Sanchez delivers — 7.31
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Facundo Sanchez scored, was marked 7.31, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match8 Mar 2036
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bréiner Pino. 5‑3 against Temperley, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Felix Mosquera 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.
Match8 Mar 2036
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between UAI Urquiza and Temperley, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Oroná 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.
Player ratings10 Mar 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Mar 2036
Juan Pablo Arango was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Feb 2036
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Feb 2036
A move Rafael Hornos would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rafael Hornos is living that version at UAI Urquiza, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Feb 2036
David Bramajo 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.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
UAI Urquiza have asked about the manager
The approach has gone in and the answer belongs to Slávia TU Košice. Business like this is done quietly and reported loudly, and rarely in that order.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at UAI Urquiza now.
Match9 Feb 2036
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation UAI Urquiza did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Feb 2036
Marco Oroná 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.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
Still no name above the door at UAI Urquiza
Day 10 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Dec 2035
Raúl Giménez breaks a bone — 31 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Dec 2035
River Plate come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Dec 2035
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Dec 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Sanchez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Dec 2035
Diego Tarzia 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.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
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.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2035
$99.0K was the most the club would pay and Estudiantes were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Independiente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market31 Dec 2035
23 games and 3 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Dec 2035
Belgrano go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.
Market3 Dec 2035
“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.
Match28 Nov 2035
0‑1 against Cesar Vallejo, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Squad3 Dec 2035
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Facundo Troncoso: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Market3 Dec 2035
The phone has started ringing about Thiago Pérez again, and this time the name on the line is San Lorenzo. Independiente are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match1 Dec 2035
5 matches without a win for Independiente
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Independiente are no longer polite ones.
Market3 Dec 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Diego Tarzia 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.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Quintana 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
Steady
Market26 Nov 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Nicolás Barros Schelotto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2035
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Loan watch26 Nov 2035
The goals keep arriving from Bautista Bainotti’s exile
13 goals in 34 games at UAI Urquiza — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Independiente updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Lucio Valdez 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 dugout26 Nov 2035
Lucio Valdez 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.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
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 Benjamín Peralta is on it.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santino López García trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Nov 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Nicolás Barros Schelotto 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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Pérez 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.
Match3 Nov 2035
Boca Juniors left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market5 Nov 2035
“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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Santiago Montiel is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Oct 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Precious Ogbeiwi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Diego Tarzia 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
Caio Vidal 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.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
Joel Orlando 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 Joel Orlando is on it.
Market15 Oct 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Independiente, another week without a signature from Nicolás Goldstein.
Market15 Oct 2035
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Independiente could ask drops and the wages Camilo Rey Domenech can ask rise.
Market15 Oct 2035
The name of Santiago Salle keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Independiente say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Facundo Sanchez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2035
A European night to remember for Independiente
2‑2 against Juventud, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Match6 Oct 2035
4‑0, and Santiago Salle took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Independiente tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market8 Oct 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom8 Oct 2035
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Facundo Sanchez has agreed terms with UAI Urquiza for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Nicolás Barros Schelotto 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.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Benjamín Peralta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match6 Oct 2035
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Unión de Santa Fe tried to reorganise, Independiente did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad8 Oct 2035
A muscle injury and 16 days out for Gastón Álvarez
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Independiente will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Quintana 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
Steady
Match8 Oct 2035
The season ends: position 4 for UAI Urquiza
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 75 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market8 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
David Bramajo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom8 Oct 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Facundo Sanchez has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means UAI Urquiza have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bréiner Pino 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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
13 new faces, and UAI Urquiza 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.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. UAI Urquiza know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market8 Oct 2035
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Felix Mosquera knocks on the manager's door
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Market
Experience through the door at UAI Urquiza
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
The dugout5 Feb 2035
Santiago Salle: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
An empty coaching office at Independiente
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Player ratings5 Feb 2035
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market5 Feb 2035
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Feb 2035
Only the photograph left for Arsene Mekila
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arsene Mekila will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Diego Tarzia 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.
Squad5 Feb 2035
A move Facundo Sanchez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Facundo Sanchez is living that version at Independiente, and it tends to show in the first month.