Marked for Erwin González
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Jun 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
No thanks: Juan Iturbe rejects the move
Pastoreo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cerro Porteno, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Libertad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Miguel Ovejero 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Erwin González has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pastoreo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erwin González, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pastoreo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Pastoreo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Libertad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match5 Jun 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Pastoreo did not have in the autumn.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Pastoreo
Miguel Ovejero 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Velázquez and Pastoreo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Pastoreo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Colmán 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 dugout7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Florencio Yudis, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Florencio Yudis out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pastoreo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Apr 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Miguel Ovejero 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Pastoreo
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pastoreo can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Luis Gamarra beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Adrian Gomez after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match10 Apr 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Rubio Nu defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Defensive actions: 12, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Diego Chamorro damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Miguel Ovejero pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Market14 Sep 2026
A stepping stone, not a home, for Juan Núñez
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Pastoreo were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Núñez and Pastoreo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Adrian Gomez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Market14 Sep 2026
At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Miguel Ovejero 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
River Plate left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christian Caballero, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Pastoreo have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Roberto Gimenez, 14, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Pastoreo would like this to lead.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Pastoreo out
Out, 0‑4 to Sportivo Luqueno, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 5 of the 23 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Pastoreo
Miguel Ovejero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Guairena, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Erwin González
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Pastoreo were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.