Marked for André Martínez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Jul 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tijuana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Gilberto Mora 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.
Squad6 Jul 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Castañeda and Tijuana agree another 2 years.
Market6 Jul 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tijuana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Words at Tijuana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Serrato 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.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
Intake day at the Tijuana academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Tijuana will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Market6 Jul 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gilberto Mora signs something — a contract at Tijuana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Boardroom6 Jul 2037
Tijuana pull $2.4M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Apr 2037
62 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad13 Apr 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tijuana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Gilberto Mora 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Words at Tijuana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Serrato 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.
Market13 Apr 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gilberto Mora signs something — a contract at Tijuana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market13 Apr 2037
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom9 Mar 2037
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Market9 Mar 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvador Manríquez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tijuana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Trivante Stewart 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.
Match7 Mar 2037
Pumas UNAM left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Words at Tijuana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduardo Armenta 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 Mar 2037
Luis Sánchez ran the middle of the pitch — 6.88
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.88, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad9 Mar 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” André Martínez and Tijuana agree another 2 years.
Player ratings9 Mar 2037
Thiago Helguera was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Squad9 Mar 2037
A season average of 7.24 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.