Marked for Andrés Muñoz
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 May 2027
A 2‑1 win over Albion, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match5 May 2027
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Andrés Muñoz decided nobody was going anywhere. Albion had no time left to answer.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Lucas Zelaya, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.25
A mark of 8.25 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad10 May 2027
Matías Pérez 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 terraces10 May 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Lucas Zelaya has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonzalo Montes, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
Franco Torgnascioli is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Montevideo City Torque, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Montevideo City Torque asked and Boca Juniors 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guillermo Varela, and the manager let it.
Market25 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Cooper have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Duré. The answer from Montevideo City Torque has not changed — yet.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Andrés Muñoz 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 Montevideo City Torque this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Racing Club 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Independiente Rivadavia 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Diogo Guzmán 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 Diogo Guzmán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Nahuel Leivas gets picked when it counts
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 Nahuel Leivas is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market18 Jan 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
No thanks: Matías Pérez rejects the move
Montevideo City Torque had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Club, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Diogo Guzmán 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Pablo Siles 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 targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Albion have kept their man, and Montevideo City Torque go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonzalo Montes, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Pablo Siles has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Montevideo City Torque 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Tacuarembo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market7 Dec 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
No deal for Matías Arezo at that price
Montevideo City Torque offered $2.6M; Penarol said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and Montevideo City Torque go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Montevideo City Torque have gone to Boston River with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
The offer went to Penarol this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Gary Kagelmacher 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Montevideo City Torque will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Siles 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nacional left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ezequiel Busquets 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kevin Jimenez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
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.