9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Montevideo City Torque has to find a result from somewhere.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pavel Núñez did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
An average of 7.16 in a first team he is several years too young for. Montevideo City Torque have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emiliano Tejera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Montevideo City Torque the goodbyes have quietly begun.
8 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Pereira 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Montevideo City Torque has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Montevideo City Torque.
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.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and River Plate had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Montevideo City Torque did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Pavel Núñez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ignacio Molina is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Artigas will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Matías Malvino has pre-agreed a move to Montevideo City Torque, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Pavel Núñez 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.
In brief
Player ratingsEsteban Obregón was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Montevideo City Torque may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.29, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Diogo Guzmán did not need any: 8.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Montevideo City Torque may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Montevideo City Torque know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Squad10 May 2027
Darío Pereira 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Montevideo City Torque may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Nicolás Azambuja 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darío Pereira 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.
“I did not go to Danubio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Montevideo City Torque and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
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.
“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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
12 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.
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.
“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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Diogo Guzmán, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 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.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Montevideo City Torque, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Montevideo City Torque, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
SquadKevin Torena falls out with a teammate over standards
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Esteban Obregón wants continental football; whether Montevideo City Torque can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The offer from Colon for Martín Almeida was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Juventud will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mauricio Rodríguez has pre-agreed a move to Montevideo City Torque, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The phone has started ringing about Rodrigo Sena again, and this time the name on the line is Artigas. Montevideo City Torque are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nicolás Azambuja 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.
3‑3 against Sport Recife, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mateo Peralta was at the centre of the description.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Sport Recife kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Danubio will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nicolás Azambuja was one of the reasons people came, and $690.0K does not replace that by itself.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Luka Andrade again, and this time the name on the line is Cerrito. Montevideo City Torque are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diogo Guzmán 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.
José Tarán 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.