Marked for Erick Aguilar
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Feb 2038
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad8 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Erick Aguilar out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings8 Feb 2038
Age has not caught Efraín Álvarez yet — 9.32
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.32 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market8 Feb 2038
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad8 Feb 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brian Gutiérrez and Guadalajara agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Feb 2038
Gilberto Sepúlveda 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.
Match6 Feb 2038
Morelia made Guadalajara work for it, but the scoreboard read 5‑4 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market8 Feb 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Guadalajara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Feb 2038
Bryan González 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings1 Feb 2038
A brace, and Efraín Álvarez takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Efraín Álvarez provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Erick Aguilar breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Feb 2038
The phone has started ringing about Jonathan Pérez again, and this time the name on the line is Veracruz. Guadalajara are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings1 Feb 2038
Patrick Agyemang, 37, rolls back the years — 8.10
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 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 Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Feb 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Guadalajara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match30 Jan 2038
The run at home goes on for Guadalajara
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan González 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2038
Erick Aguilar breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Jan 2038
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Guadalajara can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings25 Jan 2038
Age has not caught Cade Cowell yet — 8.68
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.68 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market25 Jan 2038
Only the photograph left for Cade Cowell
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cade Cowell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Guadalajara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Brian Gutiérrez 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.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Bryan González 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.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Ramos López has just signed for Guadalajara, and for once the answer mattered.
Market25 Jan 2038
The name of Santiago Sandoval has come up in conversations Guadalajara were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings25 Jan 2038
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Erick Aguilar out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad18 Jan 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 Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan González 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.
Match16 Jan 2038
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Bryan González
5 goals and a season average of 7.55 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market18 Jan 2038
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Guadalajara will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings18 Jan 2038
The chances came and went for Efraín Álvarez
11 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Jan 2038
Chiapas are out and Guadalajara go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market11 Jan 2038
Veracruz come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Guadalajara did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Erick Aguilar out for 48 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Víctor Ríos, 33, rolls back the years — 9.31
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.31 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Gilberto Sepúlveda 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.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Bryan González 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.
Match9 Jan 2038
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2038
Erick Aguilar breaks a bone — 56 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Jan 2038
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Guadalajara have had the benefit of it.
Player ratings4 Jan 2038
Age has not caught Andrés Montaño yet — 8.54
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.54 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market4 Jan 2038
The phone has started ringing about Jonathan Pérez again, and this time the name on the line is Veracruz. Guadalajara are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 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 Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Richard Ledezma and Guadalajara agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match2 Jan 2038
3‑4 to Monterrey, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match2 Jan 2038
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Guadalajara and Monterrey in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Market4 Jan 2038
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2037
A fracture rules Erick Aguilar out for 64 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Dec 2037
Bryan González, 34, rolls back the years — 9.17
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.17 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad28 Dec 2037
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.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Gilberto Sepúlveda 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.
Market28 Dec 2037
Joel Domínguez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Guadalajara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Bryan González 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.
Match26 Dec 2037
Three points for Guadalajara, 3‑1 the final word against Pumas UNAM in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match26 Dec 2037
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings28 Dec 2037
Shots: 5. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2037
Erick Aguilar breaks a bone — 72 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2037
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.
Squad21 Dec 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Dec 2037
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Cañete wants continental football; whether Guadalajara can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan González 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 ratings21 Dec 2037
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Dec 2037
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad14 Dec 2037
A fracture rules Erick Aguilar out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Dec 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Dec 2037
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Gilberto Sepúlveda 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.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Bryan González 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.
Match12 Dec 2037
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Guadalajara and Atlas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings14 Dec 2037
Ninety minutes of Jonathan Pérez at his very best
Marked 9.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Guadalajara.
Squad14 Dec 2037
9 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2037
There were 10 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.
Match5 Dec 2037
A 2-goal lead gone for Guadalajara
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Santos Laguna kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Guadalajara will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad7 Dec 2037
A fracture rules Erick Aguilar out for 87 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
Age has not caught Bryan González yet — 8.29
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad7 Dec 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bryan González and Guadalajara agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Dec 2037
Only the photograph left for Javier Alvarez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Javier Alvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Guadalajara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
Jonathan Pérez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.89. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
Ninety minutes of Musa Touré at his very best
Marked 8.63. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Guadalajara.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2037
Erick Aguilar breaks a bone — 95 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings30 Nov 2037
Age has not caught Bryan González yet — 8.02
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Ángel Sevilla: 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.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Gilberto Sepúlveda 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.
Market30 Nov 2037
Joel Domínguez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Guadalajara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Bryan González 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 ratings30 Nov 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings30 Nov 2037
15 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Match28 Nov 2037
It needed Jonathan Pérez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Veracruz, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.