Marked for Joel Figueredo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2028
Orlando Gaona Lugo 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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ivan Almiron commits to Nacional for another 5 years.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
Joel Figueredo: 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.” Nacional have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonzalo Siri, and the manager let it.
Loan watch23 Aug 2027
“I watch every Nacional game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sportivo Trinidense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Bailone, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Joel Figueredo 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Orlando Gaona Lugo plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 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.
Squad5 Apr 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 ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Leandro Meza 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The captaincy has been taken off Orlando Gaona Lugo. Nacional will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.