Marked for César Salinas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Jul 2027
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Independiente CG are no longer polite ones.
Market5 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Independiente CG, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.67, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Willy Pretel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Jul 2027
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcelo Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Independiente CG asked and Cerro Porteno 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 terraces5 Jul 2027
At 23 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jun 2027
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 The request is on a desk at Independiente CG, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Alder Zárate: 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.” Independiente CG have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Independiente CG have done the hard part with Guarani, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Marcelo Paredes 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Blas Franco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Jun 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Juan González
“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.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Derlis Orué: 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.” Independiente CG have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match8 May 2027
No end in sight to Independiente CG's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Independiente CG has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 May 2027
Willy Pretel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Marcelo Paredes 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.
Match8 May 2027
Sol de America left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Bogado, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Adrian Caceres left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
The knee: Blas Franco out for 26 days
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente CG lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Independiente CG's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Independiente CG has to find a result from somewhere.
Match12 Sep 2026
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Alvarenga 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enrique Guedes, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The formation has left Darío Ferreira behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Independiente CG will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.27, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.