Marked for Gabriel León
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Feb 2029
Alan Vargas 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 Pastoreo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Still no name above the door at Pastoreo
Day 11 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
Pastoreo asked and Sol de America said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Matías Bogado 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.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.65 on the card, and the Pastoreo support went home talking about one name.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Wages eat 86% of everything Pastoreo earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match10 Feb 2029
A 1‑1 draw with Sportivo San Lorenzo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Nobody arrives at Pastoreo until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Pastoreo this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Pastoreo dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2028
49 days out for Fernando Pineda after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pastoreo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Matías Bogado has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pastoreo is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Belts tighten at Pastoreo
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Pastoreo
Juan Roa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Pastoreo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Bogado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Juan Roa
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout28 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Fernando Pineda has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pastoreo is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Aug 2028
A falling-out at Pastoreo
Alan Vargas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Pastoreo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. César Núñez 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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
177% of the income goes out in wages at Pastoreo
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match26 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Aug 2028
8 new faces, and Pastoreo 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 dugout28 Aug 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Fernando Balbuena after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
A promise honoured at Pastoreo
Something was said to Daniel Fernández and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
David Tapia gets it from the manager
“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.