Marked for Valentín Sosa
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Sep 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Sep 2035
3 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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Age has not caught Matías Fonseca yet — 9.25
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Sep 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Peralta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Jonás Acevedo 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.
Match22 Sep 2035
Huracán made Instituto work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Ian Corsaro gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Instituto deserved better, and so did he.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Sep 2035
Chastening afternoon for Instituto
A 0‑3 beating by River Plate was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“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.
Market17 Sep 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Juan Bisanz 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Jonás Acevedo 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.
Boardroom17 Sep 2035
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces17 Sep 2035
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Aug 2035
Valentín Sosa 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 Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Aug 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Aug 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonás Acevedo 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.
Squad27 Aug 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonás Acevedo, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Match25 Aug 2035
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings27 Aug 2035
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings27 Aug 2035
Marked 5.51. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Aug 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Instituto may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market20 Aug 2035
Camilo Machado has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Juan Bisanz 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Aug 2035
Sarmiento left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Aug 2035
The manager makes an example of Valentín Sosa
“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.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Ian Corsaro 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.
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
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.
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
Marked 5.41, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
5.58. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Jul 2035
Valentín Sosa 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 Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Jul 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match28 Jul 2035
The wait goes on for Instituto
4 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.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Juan Bisanz 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.
Match28 Jul 2035
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Jul 2035
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ian Corsaro 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.
Squad30 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Matías Fonseca
“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 ratings30 Jul 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. 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
Market23 Jul 2035
Only the photograph left for Camilo Machado
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Camilo Machado will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Juan Bisanz 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Jonás Acevedo 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.
Squad23 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Juan Bisanz
“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.
Match21 Jul 2035
Atlético Tucumán left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Jul 2035
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.
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
5.70 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces23 Jul 2035
Everybody has an opinion about Camilo Machado
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jun 2035
“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.
Market4 Jun 2035
Valentín Sosa 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 Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jun 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jonás Acevedo commits to Instituto for another 2 years.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Juan Bisanz 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.
Market4 Jun 2035
Joaquín Ponce has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonás Acevedo 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
Upbeat
Match28 Apr 2035
Independiente Rivadavia will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Instituto were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.49, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Matías Fonseca, 34, rolls back the years — 7.88
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match28 Apr 2035
Instituto make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Instituto have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Jonás Acevedo 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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
The manager makes an example of Ian Corsaro
“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 ratings30 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Valentín Sosa knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valentín Sosa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces16 Apr 2035
The mood at Instituto has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.54, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad16 Apr 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Instituto may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Juan Bisanz 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ian Corsaro and Instituto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
A performance of 8.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
Ninety minutes of Ian Corsaro at his very best
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Instituto.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Mar 2035
7 matches without a win for Instituto
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Instituto are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Juan Bisanz 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.
Market26 Mar 2035
Only the photograph left for Noah Ibáñez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noah Ibáñez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Massaccesi, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ian Corsaro 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
Uneasy
Match3 Mar 2035
4 matches without a win for Instituto
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Instituto are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Juan Bisanz 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Fonseca and Instituto agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Ian Corsaro 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.
Match3 Mar 2035
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 Jan 2035
The mood at Instituto has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market22 Jan 2035
Valentín Sosa 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 Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Market22 Jan 2035
Enzo Paz has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Jan 2035
A muscle injury sidelines Agustín Ramos for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Instituto will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad22 Jan 2035
The manager makes an example of Valentín Sosa
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Jan 2035
Joaquín Ponce has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Juan Bisanz 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.
Boardroom15 Jan 2035
Still no name above the door at Instituto
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonás Acevedo 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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Valentín Sosa asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Dec 2034
Anger at Instituto spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market25 Dec 2034
Valentín Sosa 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 Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Joaquín Uroz: 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.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Dec 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom25 Dec 2034
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Enzo Paz has agreed terms with Aldosivi for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Juan Bisanz 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
Pressure builds in the Instituto boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match4 Dec 2034
Every point is an argument now for Instituto
Position 14 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad4 Dec 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Instituto may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Dec 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Jonás Acevedo 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
The manager makes an example of Valentín Sosa
“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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
$5.0M taken back off the Instituto table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Oct 2034
Every point is an argument now for Instituto
Position 14 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market9 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Juan Bisanz 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Oct 2034
1‑3 to Independiente Rivadavia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Oct 2034
“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 ratings9 Oct 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Ian Corsaro 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Sep 2034
Instituto are in real trouble now
Position 14, 6 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.
Market11 Sep 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Agustín Massaccesi 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Jonás Acevedo 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.
Match9 Sep 2034
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad11 Sep 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Getting past Valentín Sosa has become the hardest job in the division
8 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
The terraces11 Sep 2034
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jun 2034
“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.
Market5 Jun 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Jun 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hernán de la Fuente and Instituto agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jun 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Ian Corsaro 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.
Market5 Jun 2034
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Camilo Machado has his answer from Instituto; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 May 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Julián Rodríguez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 May 2034
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Squad22 May 2034
Jonás Acevedo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Match25 Mar 2034
Joaquín Dobal had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Argentinos Juniors were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings27 Mar 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.56, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match25 Mar 2034
No end in sight to Instituto's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Instituto has to find a result from somewhere.
Market27 Mar 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Juan Bisanz 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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonás Acevedo 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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valentín Sosa, and the manager let it.
Match25 Mar 2034
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Feb 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Valentín Sosa: 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.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market13 Feb 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Feb 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juan Bisanz commits to Instituto for another 3 years.
Squad13 Feb 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Feb 2034
A 2‑1 win over Racing Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings13 Feb 2034
A performance of 8.73 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings13 Feb 2034
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Feb 2034
A mark of 5.51 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Dec 2033
Instituto are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 73 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market26 Dec 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market26 Dec 2033
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market26 Dec 2033
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Instituto have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad26 Dec 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market26 Dec 2033
The Tomás Bais conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Huracán will make the call about Tomás Bais this week. Instituto have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad26 Dec 2033
“The easiest signature of my career.” Valentín Sosa and Instituto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom26 Dec 2033
Belgrano will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Brian Guerra has pre-agreed a move to Instituto, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad26 Dec 2033
Joaquín Dobal 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.