Marked for Bryan Gamboa
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Javier Güemez: 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.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cruz Azul has been clear about where Cristian Jiménez stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market11 Oct 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cruz Azul, another week without a signature from Rodrigo Moriñigo.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I want to play”: Bryan Gamboa speaks
“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 dugout11 Oct 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruz Azul. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad11 Oct 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Cruz Azul the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 2027
Bryan Gamboa hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Cruz Azul
Gabriel Fernández 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Cruz Azul asked and Santos Laguna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match28 Aug 2027
A 1‑0 win over Toluca, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luís Esteves, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Raul Corona: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
When it matters, Erik Lira plays
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
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
81 days out for Kevin Arteaga after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cruz Azul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market8 Feb 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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cruz Azul may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match6 Feb 2027
Cruz Azul make home a hard place to visit
10 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Cruz Azul
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market8 Feb 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Cruz Azul will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 2‑0 win over Dorados, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The clock did what Leon would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match28 Oct 2026
Cruz Azul march on in the cup
Tijuana are out and Cruz Azul go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Market2 Nov 2026
Carlos Rodríguez wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruz Azul hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match31 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Cruz Azul against Atlas
1‑3 to Atlas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match31 Oct 2026
The run is over for Cruz Azul
6 matches without defeat, and then Atlas. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Amaury García at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cruz Azul.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Market12 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cruz Azul can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Josué Díaz, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Cruz Azul have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Jorge Rodarte knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Rodarte trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I want to play”: Josué Díaz speaks
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Cruz Azul shop where it costs nothing
Rodrigo Moriñigo signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes Bryan Gamboa a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruz Azul. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nicolás Ibáñez has started doing his badges
“I watch sessions differently now. I catch myself thinking about why we are doing the drill.” At 32 that is how nearly every man in a dugout started.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
José Paradela and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Cruz Azul, 1‑0 the final word against Guadalajara in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlos Rotondi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Erik Lira
A mark of 7.57, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Raul Corona: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Market21 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Omar Campos may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Market21 Sep 2026
The Omar Campos talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.