Marked for Joaquín Di Lollo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Sep 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2038
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Juan González 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2038
Rodrigo Marín damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2038
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Nacional can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom6 Sep 2038
Crisis meeting at Nacional
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad6 Sep 2038
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2038
115 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad6 Sep 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Hernández and Nacional agree another 2 years.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nacional keep producing them
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Boardroom
Nacional were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2038
Rodolfo Argüello 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.
Squad26 Jul 2038
The medical room confirms 40 days on the sidelines for Alfredo Martínez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Jul 2038
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Ramon Gamarra, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Juan Feliú has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Nacional 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.
Squad19 Jul 2038
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joaquín Di Lollo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 Mar 2038
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 33 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings1 Mar 2038
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.85, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings1 Mar 2038
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad1 Mar 2038
A muscle injury sidelines Hernán Domínguez for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Nacional will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodolfo Argüello 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.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Máximo Atrio 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 Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Feb 2038
It finished 2‑0, and it was Matías Hernández’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Nacional.
Player ratings1 Mar 2038
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodolfo Argüello
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodolfo Argüello
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market23 Nov 2037
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
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodolfo Argüello
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nacional may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Espínola
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Líder Cáceres 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Espínola
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Nov 2037
39 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2037
Carlos Espínola damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Squad26 Oct 2037
A fracture rules Joaquín Di Lollo out for 62 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2037
Carlos Espínola damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Squad19 Oct 2037
A fracture rules Joaquín Di Lollo out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Oct 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2037
Carlos Espínola damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
A fracture rules Joaquín Di Lollo out for 76 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Oct 2037
“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 Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2037
Carlos Espínola damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Squad5 Oct 2037
A fracture rules Joaquín Di Lollo out for 83 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Oct 2037
242 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Nacional know what they have.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2037
Carlos Espínola damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Squad28 Sep 2037
A fracture rules Joaquín Di Lollo out for 90 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Sep 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2037
Carlos Espínola damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
Squad21 Sep 2037
A fracture rules Joaquín Di Lollo out for 97 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Sep 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Nacional may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Matías Unyicio out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 10.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market23 Feb 2037
Only the photograph left for Agustín Gauna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Gauna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match21 Feb 2037
Nacional cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad23 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Feb 2037
Cerro Porteno made Nacional work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
Ninety minutes of Líder Cáceres at his very best
Marked 9.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nacional.
Squad23 Feb 2037
“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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Cabrera 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.