Marked for Gregorio Pulero
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gregorio Pulero
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sarmiento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Javier Burrai 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Osmar Giménez is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Market21 Jun 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 Sarmiento can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Jun 2027
Only the photograph left for Lucas Meza
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Meza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sarmiento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Jun 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 Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 55 days on the sidelines for Lucas Suárez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Jun 2027
The season ends here for Sarmiento
Racing Club 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gregorio Pulero
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sarmiento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Jun 2027
João Pedro is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with João Pedro: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad14 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad14 Jun 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Ninety minutes of Manuel Mónaco at his very best
Marked 8.89. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sarmiento.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Jun 2027
2‑1 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Match2 Jun 2027
Sarmiento win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 102th minute. Argentinos Juniors will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market7 Jun 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.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
No sign of nerves from Jhon Renteria at 21 — 8.14
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jhon Renteria did not need any: 8.14, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Jun 2027
João Pedro is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad7 Jun 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 Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 May 2027
2‑1 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Squad31 May 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Match26 May 2027
Sarmiento win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 101th minute. Lanús will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Jhon Renteria, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.42
A mark of 8.42 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad31 May 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom31 May 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lucas Meza 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Javier Burrai 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Mauricio Martínez 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 ratings31 May 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Market24 May 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 Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 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.
Market24 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Lucas Meza
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Meza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sarmiento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 May 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 Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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
Crisis
Squad17 May 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
No sign of nerves from Jhon Renteria at 21 — 8.75
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jhon Renteria did not need any: 8.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market17 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sarmiento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 May 2027
Javier Burrai 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.
Squad17 May 2027
A season average of 7.02 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Sarmiento know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad17 May 2027
Mauricio Martínez 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 ratings17 May 2027
A performance of 9.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market17 May 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Market10 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.
Match10 May 2027
Sarmiento refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings10 May 2027
No sign of nerves from Jhon Renteria at 21 — 8.24
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jhon Renteria did not need any: 8.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings10 May 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.76 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 May 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 Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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.
Match8 May 2027
Three points for Sarmiento, 2‑1 the final word against Racing Club in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Ninety minutes of Gastón González at his very best
Marked 8.96. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sarmiento.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 77 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Jhon Renteria, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.78
A mark of 8.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad3 May 2027
Osmar Giménez: 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.” Sarmiento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 May 2027
Javier Burrai 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 May 2027
Mauricio Martínez 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 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jhon Renteria. 2‑1 against Rosario Central, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces3 May 2027
At 23 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Ninety minutes of Junior Marabel at his very best
Marked 8.68. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sarmiento.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Ninety minutes of Julián Contrera at his very best
Marked 8.42. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sarmiento.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Gregorio Pulero damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Match21 Apr 2027
The small margins put Sarmiento out
Out, 1‑1 to Quilmes, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market26 Apr 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 Sarmiento can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2027
João Pedro is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with João Pedro: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match24 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Sarmiento's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sarmiento has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 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 Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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.
The terraces26 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Brandon Márquez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.