Marked for Luis Ortiz
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Federico Pereira out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Toluca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Giovani Bravo damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad18 Jan 2038
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad18 Jan 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.
Match16 Jan 2038
Pachuca left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
The chances came and went for Robert Morales
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Federico Pereira out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Toluca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Giovani Bravo damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match6 Jan 2038
The cup run ends for Toluca
2‑3 against Monterrey, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Alexis Vega, 40, rolls back the years — 9.13
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.13 at 40, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market11 Jan 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Toluca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Jan 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Toluca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match9 Jan 2038
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jinairo Johnson. 3‑1 against Puebla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
A performance of 9.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jun 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
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 Toluca can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Jun 2037
The Toluca board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad8 Jun 2037
Luis Ortiz: 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.” Toluca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Jun 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 Toluca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Jun 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Toluca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Jun 2037
A move Oribe Jimenez 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. Oribe Jimenez is living that version at Toluca, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market8 Jun 2037
He is 20, and nobody at Toluca signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market8 Jun 2037
Sergio Carrasco is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Toluca has been clear about where Sergio Carrasco stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
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Boardroom
Toluca pull $1.6M back off the table
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Market
The shop window has Francisco Rabago in it
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Boardroom
The Toluca production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Hugo Vetlesen, 37, rolls back the years — 9.62
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.62 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Luis Ortiz: 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.” Toluca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Alexis Vega 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 Toluca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Mar 2037
Toluca make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Toluca have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Alexis Vega
10 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad16 Mar 2037
The manager makes an example of Santiago Simón
“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.
Match14 Mar 2037
Three points for Toluca, 2‑1 the final word against Veracruz in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Zach Booth runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market16 Mar 2037
The clock does Efraín Orona’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Toluca could ask drops and the wages Efraín Orona can ask rise.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Toluca production line keeps running
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The terraces
The stand has a song for Robert Morales
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Feb 2037
Bruno Salgado: 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.” Toluca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
Alexis Vega, 39, rolls back the years — 8.71
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.71 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market23 Feb 2037
Juan Cantú has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Toluca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Tempers go at Toluca
Robert Morales 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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
11 goals and a season average of 7.52. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match21 Feb 2037
Guadalajara left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match21 Feb 2037
Toluca are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad23 Feb 2037
The manager makes an example of AZ Jackson
“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 ratings23 Feb 2037
Luis Ortiz runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Aug 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Robert Morales
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Toluca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Aug 2036
“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 Toluca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Aug 2036
Only the photograph left for Ivan Mandić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Mandić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Toluca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Aug 2036
“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.
Player ratings4 Aug 2036
Alexis Vega, 38, rolls back the years — 8.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Aug 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexis Vega commits to Toluca for another 2 years.
Squad4 Aug 2036
Tempers go at Toluca
Alexis Vega 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.
Match2 Aug 2036
Toluca come up short against Atlas
Atlas left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match2 Aug 2036
7 goals as Toluca and Atlas go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Toluca and Atlas, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.