Marked for Emanuel Candal
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 2038
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2038
A fracture rules Emanuel Candal out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Godoy Cruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 Mar 2038
Leandro Quiroz, 34, rolls back the years — 8.76
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.76 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Leandro Quiroz 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.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Words at Godoy Cruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Altamira 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Mar 2038
“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.
Match27 Feb 2038
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings1 Mar 2038
17 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Feb 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Godoy Cruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Facundo Altamira 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2038
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
Luciano Pascual, 33, rolls back the years — 9.05
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Leandro Quiroz 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.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Words at Godoy Cruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Altamira 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match13 Feb 2038
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luciano Pascual. 1‑0 against Independiente, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
Leandro Quiroz, 33, rolls back the years — 9.65
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.65 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
No sign of nerves from Jefe at 19 — 8.09
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jefe did not need any: 8.09, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad6 Apr 2037
319 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Leandro Quiroz 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.
Squad6 Apr 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Natan Navarro and Godoy Cruz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Words at Godoy Cruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Altamira 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 terraces6 Apr 2037
Godoy Cruz supporters have found a favourite in Jefe
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Jefe 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.
Match4 Apr 2037
It finished 1‑0, and it was Leandro Quiroz’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Godoy Cruz.