Marked for Dylan Rodríguez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Nov 2027
Canadian refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Canadian
Mateo Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Oct 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.
Match18 Oct 2027
Canadian up to position 3
27 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Canadian
Mateo Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Dylan Rodríguez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Canadian 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Canadian. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Hans Müller 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 Hans Müller trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Canadian
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
168% of the income goes out in wages at Canadian
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Axel López 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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 33, with 6 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Sep 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.
Match20 Sep 2027
Canadian are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 27 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Canadian
Mateo Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Nawel da Silva at 21 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nawel da Silva did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play Canadian right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Canadian
Mateo Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match10 Apr 2027
A 1‑0 win over Mar de Fondo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hans Müller, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Emiliano Gomez could afford to be generous.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Dylan Pihuala asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Kevin Riverón
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Canadian had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Apr 2027
Canadian up to position 3
11 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Nawel da Silva at 21 — 8.13
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nawel da Silva did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Canadian this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Apr 2027
Three points for Canadian, 2‑1 the final word against Lito in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces5 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bruno Gómez 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rodrigo González has his answer from Canadian; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Matías Losada
“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.
Market5 Apr 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Canadian, another week without a signature from Leandro Domínguez.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Emiliano Gomez, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.