Marked for Edwin Alvarado
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Dec 2034
Beaten 1‑5 by Club America, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match16 Dec 2034
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Dec 2034
“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.
Market18 Dec 2034
Jorge Lozano 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 Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Eduardo Vega 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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Dec 2034
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Veracruz and Club America in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Jorge Herrera 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 ratings18 Dec 2034
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Jan 2034
Anger at Veracruz 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.
Match28 Jan 2034
The wait goes on for Veracruz
12 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.
Boardroom30 Jan 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Veracruz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Veracruz is running low.
Match28 Jan 2034
Nowhere to hide for Veracruz
0‑5 against Cruz Azul, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad30 Jan 2034
There were 9 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.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Jorge Marquez 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Oct 2033
Anger at Veracruz 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.
Squad10 Oct 2033
Eduardo Vega 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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Oct 2033
Victor Salcedo 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.
Squad10 Oct 2033
“The easiest signature of my career.” Edwin Alvarado and Veracruz agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match8 Oct 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Pineda. 2‑1 against Tijuana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 Oct 2033
26 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.