Marked for Joelson Gamarra
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 Oct 2033
Anger at General Caballero spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad24 Oct 2033
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. General Caballero lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 Oct 2033
Junior Brítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Oct 2033
Brandon Rangel knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at General Caballero, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market24 Oct 2033
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what General Caballero could get for him.
The dugout24 Oct 2033
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Antonio Gomez has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jul 2033
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. General Caballero lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces4 Jul 2033
The mood at General Caballero has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match4 Jul 2033
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 13 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market4 Jul 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at General Caballero, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match2 Jul 2033
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around General Caballero are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Jul 2033
Junior Brítez 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.
Squad4 Jul 2033
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ángel Espínola 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 ratings4 Jul 2033
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Jul 2033
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Jun 2033
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. General Caballero lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad20 Jun 2033
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.
The dugout20 Jun 2033
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” General Caballero have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Jun 2033
Ángel Espínola 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 ratings20 Jun 2033
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout20 Jun 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Acosta, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Jun 2033
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 0‑0, and nobody in the General Caballero dressing room was either.
Player ratings20 Jun 2033
Shots: 16, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Market20 Jun 2033
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Reinaldo Benítez has his answer from General Caballero; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 May 2033
The knee: Junior Brítez out for 108 days
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. General Caballero lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market30 May 2033
Miguel Enciso hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what General Caballero can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 May 2033
Junior Brítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 May 2033
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ángel Espínola 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 dugout30 May 2033
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Richard Escobar will call it something else in private.
Player ratings30 May 2033
7.88, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. General Caballero had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Player ratings30 May 2033
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad30 May 2033
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roberto Gonzalez and General Caballero agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 May 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Junior Brítez
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. General Caballero lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces9 May 2033
Anger at General Caballero spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings9 May 2033
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 May 2033
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrés Molinas and General Caballero agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match7 May 2033
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad9 May 2033
Junior Brítez 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.
Squad9 May 2033
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ángel Espínola 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 ratings9 May 2033
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Santiago Enciso clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Squad7 Feb 2033
Joelson Gamarra damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Match5 Feb 2033
1‑5 to Sol de America, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad7 Feb 2033
Junior Brítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom7 Feb 2033
10 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jan 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Joelson Gamarra
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. General Caballero lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Jan 2033
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad31 Jan 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at General Caballero this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2033
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángel Espínola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Jan 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luis Enciso commits to General Caballero for another 3 years.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
Luis Enciso 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jan 2033
A knee injury of the worst kind for Joelson Gamarra
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. General Caballero lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom24 Jan 2033
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at General Caballero is running low.
Squad24 Jan 2033
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ángel Espínola 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.
Squad24 Jan 2033
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Gustavo Cubas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Jan 2033
Carlos Balbuena 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.
The dugout24 Jan 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mathías Bordón, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jan 2033
Supporters organise against the General Caballero board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad17 Jan 2033
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. General Caballero lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 Jan 2033
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what General Caballero can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings31 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 May 2032
Favio Durán has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around General Caballero they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 May 2032
Ángel Espínola 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.
Match29 May 2032
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at General Caballero can tell you which week it ends in.
Match29 May 2032
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad31 May 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at General Caballero this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 May 2032
12 de Octubre left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 May 2032
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout31 May 2032
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Richard Escobar will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2032
8 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.
Match1 May 2032
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market3 May 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at General Caballero is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 May 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at General Caballero this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead3 May 2032
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
Match1 May 2032
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad3 May 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Matto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 May 2032
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad3 May 2032
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom12 Jan 2032
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at General Caballero is running low.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
Mathías Bordón: 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.” General Caballero have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market12 Jan 2032
Only the photograph left for Miguel Rojas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miguel Rojas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around General Caballero the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Junior Brítez 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángel Espínola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
General Caballero asked and Guarani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.