Marked for Ramiro Vitale
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jan 2033
Santiago Valenzuela 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 dugout10 Jan 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexis Dulón, and the manager let it.
Market10 Jan 2033
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sportivo Luqueno can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad10 Jan 2033
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Ramírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Jan 2033
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.
Market10 Jan 2033
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sportivo Luqueno, another week without a signature from Matías Almeida.
Squad10 Jan 2033
Ramiro Vitale arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
Match10 Jan 2033
Continental football is in reach for Sportivo Luqueno
30 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2032
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sportivo Luqueno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sportivo Luqueno have done the hard part with Olimpia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market27 Dec 2032
Ángel González has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sportivo Luqueno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Santiago Valenzuela and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and Sportivo Luqueno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Words at Sportivo Luqueno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Jiménez 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
Squad20 Dec 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Dec 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sportivo Luqueno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Dec 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sportivo Luqueno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2032
A move Ramiro Vitale would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ramiro Vitale is living that version at Sportivo Luqueno, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Sportivo Luqueno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Cristian Ramírez 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.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
A loan enquiry to Racing Club: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
Empoli 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.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
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 Ángel González is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match4 Jun 2031
One game from it all for Racing Club
Past River Plate and into the final. A club can go a generation without a day like this and then get two in four years, and nobody can tell in advance which kind of club they are.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
$56.1M on the table at Fiorentina. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad9 Jun 2031
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match4 Jun 2031
A 8‑0 win over Gimnasia y Tiro, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
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.
Market9 Jun 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Club people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.50, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
$1.5M settles it between the clubs for Daniel Herrera
San Lorenzo have accepted the money. What Racing Club do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Match4 Jun 2031
The run at home goes on for Racing Club
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 May 2031
Nahuel Molina 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.
Squad19 May 2031
Gastón Martirena 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.
The dugout19 May 2031
The manager makes an example of Adolfo Gaich
“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 dugout19 May 2031
Facundo Cambeses has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Racing Club 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 dugout19 May 2031
The manager makes Tobías Rubio a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Racing Club. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market19 May 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matías Zaracho signs something — a contract at Racing Club or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Apr 2031
5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad28 Apr 2031
22 days out for Matko Miljevic after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match28 Apr 2031
The view from the top for Racing Club
31 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.43, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market28 Apr 2031
“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 Racing Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match26 Apr 2031
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Racing Club have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Apr 2031
Only the photograph left for Gonzalo Leiva
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gonzalo Leiva will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Racing Club the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Mar 2031
50 days out for Matko Miljevic after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match31 Mar 2031
First, on 23 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
Age has not caught Matías Zaracho yet — 8.29
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market31 Mar 2031
Ramiro Vitale 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 Racing Club can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Mar 2031
Whatever happens, Racing Club do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market31 Mar 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing Club is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Mar 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Mar 2031
A 2‑0 win over Aldosivi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match29 Mar 2031
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Racing Club. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
In brief
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Player ratings
Adrián Fernández runs at them all day
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Mateo Aguiar
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The dugout
The view from the dugout