Marked for Jerónimo Arbeláez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A one-man rearguard from Leo Ocampo
There were 6 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Gustavo Mendoza 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.
Match23 Mar 2030
The run at home goes on for Atlanta
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
The chances came and went for Tiago Taobas
12 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.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Aguilera, and the manager let it.
Match23 Mar 2030
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Racing will be the happier side with the point.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Alejo Dramisino 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 terraces4 Mar 2030
The crowd has taken to Yair Cerda
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match2 Mar 2030
A 2‑0 win over San Martín, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad4 Mar 2030
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gustavo Mendoza has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Market4 Mar 2030
No place for Leo Ocampo in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Leo Ocampo has his answer from Atlanta; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Luis Silva, 16, gets his chance
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 16. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Feb 2030
6 saves: Leo Ocampo was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
Roberto Quiroga: 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.” Atlanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market18 Feb 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlanta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Atlanta
Alejo Dramisino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Feb 2030
A bad afternoon for Atlanta against Almagro
0‑1 to Almagro, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A row about effort at Atlanta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yair Cerda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Feb 2030
The run is over for Atlanta
4 matches without defeat, and then Almagro. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad18 Feb 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Atlanta are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets31 Dec 2029
$120.0K settles it between the clubs for Valentino Albornoz
Colón have accepted the money. What Atlanta do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market31 Dec 2029
“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 Atlanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2029
Everything agreed with Independiente Rivadavia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A falling-out at Atlanta
Alejo Dramisino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2029
Atlanta offered $16.0K; Huracán said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad31 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Diego Ibáñez commits to Atlanta for another 3 years.
Market31 Dec 2029
The Darián Romero conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Racing will make the call about Darián Romero this week. Atlanta have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market31 Dec 2029
The name of Tobías Córdoba keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Atlanta say nothing, which says plenty.
Market31 Dec 2029
Atlanta have let the market know Diego Aguilera can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets24 Dec 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Colón; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market24 Dec 2029
Only the photograph left for Darián Romero
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Darián Romero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Gustavo Mendoza 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Atlanta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yair Cerda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jerónimo Arbeláez commits to Atlanta for another 3 years.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Atlanta will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market24 Dec 2029
The name of Alejo Dramisino keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Atlanta say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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.
Match24 Dec 2029
Atlanta in the hunt for Europe
Position 6, 56 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ruyery Blanco
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Union Magdalena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Dec 2028
66 days out for Santiago Gómez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Union Magdalena will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market18 Dec 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Union Magdalena have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Dec 2028
“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.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jerónimo Arbeláez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad18 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Magdalena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Union Magdalena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Márquez 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.
Transfer targets18 Dec 2028
Union Magdalena asked and Carabobo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market18 Dec 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Cristian Díaz has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Union Magdalena.