Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Los Andes spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Comunicaciones have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Comunicaciones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Comunicaciones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Iñaki Harguindeguy has just signed for Comunicaciones, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
He is 21 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Juárez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sarmiento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Belgrano wanted more than $260.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Fernández 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.
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 Iván Arboleda is on it.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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 Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sarmiento have done the hard part with San Martín SJ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The chase for Alejandro Herrera ended with $1.1M changing hands and Ferrocarril Midland out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sarmiento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Villalba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2‑1 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Sarmiento are entitled to ignore.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sarmiento scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sarmiento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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.
“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 Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Carlos Villalba 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.
“I did not go to O'Higgins to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sarmiento and fight for my place.” 9 appearances in 35 matches say the rest.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Carlos Villalba's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Alexis González is on it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ulises Echevarría may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Thiago Santamaría 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 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 watch every Sarmiento game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Huracán runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Thiago Santamaría has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sarmiento have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adrián Balboa’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sarmiento needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Rodrigo Fumiz has moved up it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Manuel García had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sarmiento people have started saying his name in the past tense.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Independiente Rivadavia paid $650.0K and Sarmiento took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sarmiento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Belgrano in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Sarmiento 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.