Marked for Alfonso de Luca
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
Matías Mir in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liverpool Montevideo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Federico Martínez. 1‑0 against Defensor Sporting, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Squad29 Mar 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Liverpool Montevideo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Vaca 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.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Liverpool Montevideo, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Martín Campaña dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Atenas, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Mar 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Ignacio Neira pops up at the right end — 7.69
7.69, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Match20 Mar 2027
11 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.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Alfonso de Luca 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.
Squad22 Mar 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Liverpool Montevideo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Cayetano 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
Squad23 Nov 2026
Alfonso de Luca: 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.” Liverpool Montevideo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Kevin Amaro in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liverpool Montevideo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Sep 2026
A 2‑0 win over Wanderers, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Diego Zabala takes the afternoon — 8.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Diego Zabala provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kevin Amaro 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.
Match30 Sep 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ramiro Degregorio 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Liverpool Montevideo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Cayetano 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Barceló, and the manager let it.