Marked for Luis Gómez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Jan 2030
Dani Bolt puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Tigres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jan 2030
Saidy Janko has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tigres they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market28 Jan 2030
Morelia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tigres did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jan 2030
11 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match26 Jan 2030
4 matches without a win for Tigres
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Tigres are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market28 Jan 2030
Everyone has stopped pretending: Pachuca will make the call about Brian Rodríguez this week. Tigres have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Jan 2030
1‑2 to Club America, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
A defender's afternoon for César Araújo
Defensive actions: 28. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad30 Jul 2029
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match28 Jul 2029
Three points for Tigres, 1‑0 the final word against Chiapas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Gómez and Tigres agree another 4 years.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“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
Steady
Market2 Jul 2029
Tigres say no — this time
The offer from Chiapas for Luis Gómez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad2 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2029
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Franco Romero 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 Tigres, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market2 Jul 2029
The Jose Cardona talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tigres know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A new face in his position, and Fernando Gorriarán suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Tigres have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market5 Feb 2029
The phone has started ringing about Brian Rodríguez again, and this time the name on the line is Tijuana. Tigres are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market5 Feb 2029
Kevin Álvarez wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Tigres hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Tempers go at Tigres
Jesús Angulo 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Kevin Álvarez
“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.
Match3 Feb 2029
Pumas UNAM left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Gómez and Tigres agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
$5.0M on the table at Tigres
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Sep 2028
4‑1, and Ángel Correa took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Tigres tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match9 Sep 2028
Tigres cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Tigres
Jesús Angulo 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Tigres heard it as anything else.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 9.53 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
A performance of 9.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“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 ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 8.73 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
A masterclass from Joaquim
Marked 8.51 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Aug 2028
Suhayb Al-Zaid: 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.” Tigres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Ángel Correa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Marked 9.27 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match26 Aug 2028
Three points for Tigres, 1‑0 the final word against Dorados in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market28 Aug 2028
Chiapas are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Tigres will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luiz Felipe, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo Aguirre trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.