Marked for Matteo Larrosa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Matteo Larrosa damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Match27 Nov 2026
Juventud do the business in Europe
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Juventud came through the finding-out well against Colo-Colo.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market30 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventud is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Martín Cáceres 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejo Cruz, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Juventud training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patricio Pernicone 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 Nov 2026
No place for Gonzalo Bueno on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Juventud pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.87, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matteo Larrosa
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Juventud may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Juventud
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Alejo Cruz gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alejo Cruz is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Matteo Larrosa damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Juventud
Martín Cáceres and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Patricio Pernicone 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sebastián Sosa is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Alan Ferreyra knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alan Ferreyra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Nov 2026
Alejo Cruz linked with a move away
The name of Alejo Cruz keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Juventud say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matteo Larrosa
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Alejo Cruz runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match6 Nov 2026
A European lesson for Juventud
1‑2 against Boca Juniors. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Emanuel Cecchini: 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.” Juventud have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Juventud
Martín Cáceres 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Franco De Arrascaeta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rodrigo Aguirre has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
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Squad
Geiner Martínez falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
The team sheet said everything about Agustín Alaniz
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Juventud
Martín Cáceres 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Mimbacas, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joaquin Bentancur has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Emanuel Cecchini 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Sebastián Sosa has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Juventud will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Juventud are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market14 Sep 2026
The Alejo Cruz talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Juventud know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.