A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nueva Chicago will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Facundo Castro provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 The request is on a desk at Nueva Chicago, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Ávalos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Sebastián Cocimano 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.
A 2‑1 win over Chacarita Juniors, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julián Sardinas provided it, and the 8.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente have kept their man, and Nueva Chicago go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
9.03. 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Nueva Chicago, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Platense have kept their man, and Nueva Chicago go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Defensores Unidos were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Enzo Ávalos did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Rosario Central have accepted the money. What Nueva Chicago do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
5 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Enzo Ávalos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Ávalos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dylan Gissi 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gael Flores, and the manager let it.
Squad20 May 2030
Enzo Ávalos 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Almirante Brown? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nueva Chicago is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nueva Chicago this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Enzo Ávalos 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.
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 dugout1 Apr 2030
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 Valentino Pereyra left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Gonzalo Trindade is on it.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Jacques Jean Pondi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Mar 2030
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Nueva Chicago. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Ávalos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Valentino Pereyra kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Nueva Chicago training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zorro 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nueva Chicago this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsBrandon Ríos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nueva Chicago will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nueva Chicago they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luciano Jachfe 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brandon Ríos and Nueva Chicago agree another 4 years.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Something was said to Facundo Castro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nueva Chicago lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Nueva Chicago will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Valentino Pereyra to a room that had heard them before.
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.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nueva Chicago lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sebastián Cocimano provided it, and the 9.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 55 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.
Dylan Gissi 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.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nueva Chicago lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sebastián Cocimano provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nueva Chicago this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastián Cocimano. 2‑1 against Estudiantes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Position 3, 32 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.
“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 Nueva Chicago, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nueva Chicago this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nueva Chicago lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matías Bergara provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Jachfe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 3‑1 win over Central Norte, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Central Norte spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Brandon Ríos 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.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nueva Chicago lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sebastián Cocimano 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Nueva Chicago have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Nueva Chicago training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Jachfe 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.
“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 words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Nueva Chicago had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Dylan Gissi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Alan Ruiz 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 Luciano Jachfe is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luciano Jachfe signs something — a contract at Nueva Chicago or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.