Marked for Ramiro Estenoz
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Dylan Vergara out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Pilar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Everything agreed with Tristán Suárez, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Daniel González and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Acassuso, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Oliver Rudman 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 Oliver Rudman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market14 Dec 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Nahuel Pansardi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Real Pilar.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Ramiro Estenoz 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
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Dylan Vergara out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Pilar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Sebastián Blanco 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Daniel González
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Real Pilar will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 22 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Liniers made Real Pilar work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Enzo Franco
7.88, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Real Pilar had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Pablo Vidal could afford to be generous.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
101 days out for Dylan Vergara after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Real Pilar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Santiago Sánchez: 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.” Real Pilar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Pilar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Time is catching up with Mariano Puch
Everybody at Real Pilar saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathías Crocco, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Real Pilar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Estenoz 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
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sebastián Blanco 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mariano Puch, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Pablo Vidal on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Real Pilar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Estenoz 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Deportivo Merlo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Kevin González is on it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Dylan Vergara 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 Dylan Vergara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 Sep 2026
Still no signature from Enzo Franco
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Real Pilar could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Aug 2026
Gimnasia La Plata go through and Real Pilar go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Lucas Chambi 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 Real Pilar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Sebastián Blanco 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oliver Rudman, and the manager let it.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 Marcos Riquelme is on it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastián Blanco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sebastián Blanco 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ezequiel Ibáñez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raúl Vidal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Castro has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Benjamín Bruno is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Real Pilar are still strangers to each other
13 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
Half-satisfied: Pablo Vidal on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.