Marked for Hernán Pedroso
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 May 2028
This is not rotation. Javier Martínez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Almirante Brown is pretending otherwise.
Market15 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match13 May 2028
Almirante Brown make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 May 2028
Máximo Levi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 May 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 ratings15 May 2028
Marked 7.76 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Almirante Brown had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout15 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Carlos Benítez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 May 2028
Santiago Vera 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 Almirante Brown can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 May 2028
Santiago Vera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 May 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Almirante Brown can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 May 2028
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 May 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.
The dugout8 May 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad8 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alen Boschi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 May 2028
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Deportivo Armenio came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match24 Apr 2028
20 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Enzo Cardozo 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 Almirante Brown this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match22 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hernán Pedroso, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Carlos Benítez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Apr 2028
“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 Almirante Brown, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.65, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Enzo Cardozo 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 dugout10 Apr 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hernán Varela commits to Almirante Brown for another 3 years.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Vlad Băluţoiu 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 Apr 2028
One booking too many, and Ramón González sits out. Almirante Brown lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market20 Mar 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almirante Brown can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Javier Martínez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Almirante Brown is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Hernán Pedroso 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.
Match18 Mar 2028
A 2‑0 win over Chacarita Juniors, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match18 Mar 2028
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 8.29 — 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 ratings20 Mar 2028
Santiago Vera 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Too much change too quickly at Almirante Brown
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almirante Brown can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Feb 2028
Gonzalo Flores has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Almirante Brown they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Santiago Vera 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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The numbers do not look good at Almirante Brown
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Quignón, and the manager let it.
Match26 Feb 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Bruno Miño 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 Bruno Miño trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Feb 2028
“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 Almirante Brown, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Javier Martínez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Almirante Brown is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Santiago Vera 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Bruno Miño’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almirante Brown.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hernán Pedroso, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Nobody on the pitch touched Bruno Miño
7.53, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Almirante Brown had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Almirante Brown are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Carlos Benítez could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Almirante Brown have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Javier Martínez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Almirante Brown is pretending otherwise.
Market24 Jan 2028
The shirt still fits. Hernán Pedroso is back at Almirante Brown, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Enzo Cardozo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vlad Băluţoiu commits to Almirante Brown for another 3 years.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Vlad Băluţoiu 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Too much change too quickly at Almirante Brown
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
Javier Martínez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.