“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 The request is on a desk at 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” 12 de Junio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luciano Taboada 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Leandro Caballero is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at 12 de Junio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Antoniel Armoa
“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 The request is on a desk at 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” 12 de Junio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 The request is on a desk at 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everybody at 12 de Junio saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 158% of the 12 de Junio income
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. 12 de Junio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Luciano Taboada 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.
“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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Igor Valdez 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Balbuena after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Iván Ortiz is on it.
Luciano Taboada 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Diego Balbuena was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the 12 de Junio dressing room was either.
Position 14 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Encarnacion had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and 12 de Junio did not stop to explain themselves.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.32, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luciano Taboada 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oscar Cáceres. 1‑0 against Encarnacion, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
12 de Junio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Guarani, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Marcos Duré 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Fulvio Duarte.
Something was said to Luciano Taboada and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Everything agreed with River Plate, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Oscar Cáceres 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.
Nobody at 12 de Junio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Diego Balbuena chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. 12 de Junio will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Marcos Duré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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.
Boardroom31 May 2027
145% of the income goes out in wages at 12 de Junio
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Marcos Duré 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one 12 de Junio will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sportivo Carapegua were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Oscar Cáceres and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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.
At 22 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.
A 1‑0 win over Sportivo Carapegua, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for 12 de Junio is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ramon Alderete is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. 12 de Junio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Igor Valdez has just signed for 12 de Junio, and for once the answer mattered.
12 de Junio asked and Guarani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.