Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Troche was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Encarnacion could ask drops and the wages Simón Peña can ask rise.
Words at Encarnacion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aarón Troche 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Encarnacion, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Words at Encarnacion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aarón Troche 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.
Santiago Irala 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Troche was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Encarnacion could ask drops and the wages Simón Peña can ask rise.
“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 The request is on a desk at Encarnacion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Troche was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fernando Caceres is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Juan Gimenez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Bruno López
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bruno López has come out of that comparison in the side, and Encarnacion have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jesús Cáceres’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Encarnacion needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Encarnacion, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Encarnacion could ask drops and the wages Simón Peña can ask rise.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Blas Díaz and Encarnacion agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Encarnacion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aarón Troche 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.
Fernando Viveros 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Derlis Enciso after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. 12 de Junio defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Encarnacion is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Encarnacion, another week without a signature from Simón Peña.