Marked for Iván Morel
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cerro Porteno can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Manuel Roffo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Apr 2027
Guarani left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Manuel Roffo
“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.
Looking ahead19 Apr 2027
The big one: Olimpia come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Cerro Porteno will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Blás Riveros beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Jose Almiron left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Iván Morel 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Persita come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cerro Porteno did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cerro Porteno can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Fabricio Domínguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Cerro Porteno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristhian Paredes 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.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
“I watch every Cerro Porteno game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at 12 de Junio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jorge Peralta and Cerro Porteno agree another 4 years.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Ariel Gamarra 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 Ariel Gamarra is on it.
Market25 Jan 2027
The Manuel Roffo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuel Roffo signs something — a contract at Cerro Porteno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
Fabricio Domínguez 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Cerro Porteno are still learning each other
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Ariel Gamarra has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cerro Porteno 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
Upbeat
Market21 Sep 2026
Tobías Marecos has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cerro Porteno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Enzo Cabrera has agreed terms with 12 de Junio for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Manuel Roffo 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Cerro Porteno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Morel 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Mateo Klimowicz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cerro Porteno 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
Enzo Cabrera has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cerro Porteno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Fabricio Domínguez 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ariel Gamarra has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cerro Porteno 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jonatan Torres’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market14 Sep 2026
Cerro Porteno have made Iván Morel available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kozármisleny had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Aug 2026
Carlos Zárate has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cerro Porteno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Edgar Páez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Manuel Roffo 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cristian Almiron has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ariel Gamarra commits to Cerro Porteno for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Morel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A season on the outside for Pablo Vegetti
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Cerro Porteno has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.