Marked for Benjamín Núñez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Aug 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Nacional did not have in the autumn.
Match7 Aug 2027
Nacional make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Benjamín Núñez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamín Núñez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Aug 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 Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch9 Aug 2027
The goals keep arriving from Guillermo López’s exile
14 goals in 26 games at Deportivo Maldonado — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nacional updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Nicolás Rodríguez 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rubén Botta and Nacional agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 70. 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rampla Juniors waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nacional is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market19 Jul 2027
Progreso come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Nacional did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match17 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Nacional
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Nacional
Juan Cruz de los Santos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Nicolás Rodríguez 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.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Marked 7.34. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nacional told Luciano Cosentino something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Eduardo Lopez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.07, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Jul 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 Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Jul 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Nacional did not have in the autumn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Luciano Boggio 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.
Match10 Jul 2027
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match10 Jul 2027
Cerro Largo made Nacional work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Loan watch12 Jul 2027
22 appearances at Deportivo Maldonado and the goals keep coming. Nacional are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Benjamín Núñez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market5 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Nicolás Milesi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Milesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Sebastián Coates 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 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Nacional
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Boggio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Jul 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alejandro Martínez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nacional.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market5 Jul 2027
Nacional may not be able to give Kevin Rolón what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Rolón wants continental football; whether Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lucas Morales has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 50. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rampla Juniors waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nacional is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout21 Jun 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Nacional say no — this time
The offer from Penarol for Alexis Martín Arias 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.
Market21 Jun 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 Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Gastón Martirena 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Penarol paid $870.0K and Nacional took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Nacional
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Boggio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Jun 2027
Three points for Nacional, 1‑0 the final word against Penarol in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 46. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match27 Mar 2027
6 matches without a win for Nacional
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Nacional are no longer polite ones.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Nacional
Gastón Martirena 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Boggio 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
3 matches without a goal for Nacional
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eduardo Lopez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nacional dressing room was either.
Match27 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Cerro Largo will be the happier side with the point.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Oriental in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nacional may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Gastón Martirena 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kevin Rolón 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Benjamín Núñez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.