Marked for Thiago Ciminelli
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jun 2028
Gonzalo Tapia damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Diego Acevedo 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 Deportes Santa Cruz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Jun 2028
6 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.
Match17 Jun 2028
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportes Santa Cruz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Deportes Santa Cruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Gallardo 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.
Match17 Jun 2028
Nadir Zeineddin scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to San Luis, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Santa Cruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Francisco Meneses to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Coquimbo Unido have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 May 2028
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes Santa Cruz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 May 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Deportes Santa Cruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Diego Urzúa goes up and wins it — 7.69
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.69 for the rest of it.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Dobboletta and Deportes Santa Cruz agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Deportes Santa Cruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Gallardo 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.
Match6 May 2028
A 2‑0 win over Rangers de Talca, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match6 May 2028
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Diego Urzúa in the middle of it, and Rangers de Talca unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad8 May 2028
Ignacio Caroca 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.
Player ratings8 May 2028
A mark of 7.82, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2028
The knee: Gonzalo Tapia out for 115 days
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes Santa Cruz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match1 Apr 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Santiago Morning, and it could have been more.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Deportes Santa Cruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Gallardo 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Santa Cruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Diego Urzúa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad3 Apr 2028
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Francisco Meneses could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
Esteban Flores damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Thiago Ciminelli arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thiago Ciminelli has, at Deportes Santa Cruz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market10 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Spampinato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Santa Cruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Santa Cruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Urzúa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market10 Jan 2028
Thiago Ciminelli is 20, and Deportes Santa Cruz have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
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 Nadir Zeineddin is on it.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Tejada, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sarmiento lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Jun 2027
“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 Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Manuel García has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sarmiento is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mauricio Martínez 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Carlos Villalba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A loan move for Fabricio Bustos is in the works
Sarmiento have made the call to River Plate. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Iván Arboleda has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sarmiento 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
Adrián Balboa knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sarmiento, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thiago Ciminelli
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sarmiento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Jun 2027
Sarmiento through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Talleres, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match14 Jun 2027
Sarmiento are in real trouble now
Position 15, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Julián Mavilla: 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.” Sarmiento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
No sign of nerves from Jhon Renteria at 21 — 7.71
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jhon Renteria did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
Thiago Ciminelli damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sarmiento may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Mauricio Martínez 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Carlos Villalba 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vélez have kept their man, and Sarmiento go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
River Plate have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces31 May 2027
Supporters organise against the Sarmiento board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad31 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thiago Ciminelli
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sarmiento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom31 May 2027
Pressure builds in the Sarmiento boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Sarmiento
Carlos Villalba 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 dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Jhon Renteria
“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.
The dugout31 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sarmiento, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout31 May 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.