Marked for Benjamín Rosales
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2028
9 matches without a win for Racing
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Racing are no longer polite ones.
Match16 Sep 2028
0‑3 to Almagro, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market18 Sep 2028
Luca Martino 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 Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Lautaro Ávila
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lautaro Ávila will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Racing the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Ricardo Centurión 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Axel Oyola
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
Doors closed at Racing
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Abel Bustos's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Sep 2028
Racing bow out of the cup
Boca Juniors go through and Racing go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match11 Sep 2028
Racing sink to position 16
31 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market11 Sep 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.
Match9 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Racing's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Racing has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces11 Sep 2028
16th and falling: the mood at Racing has gone
31 points and a position everybody in the ground can do the arithmetic on. The songs have stopped being about the team and started being about surviving, which is a different noise entirely.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
Market11 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Racing
Gonzalo Rostagno 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 Sep 2028
Ricardo Centurión 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Santiago Rinaudo: 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.” Racing have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Racing
4 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tomás Kummer 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 Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Pablo Chavarría 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
The goals have deserted Racing
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Racing can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Almagro left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Racing
Tomás Kummer 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Ricardo Centurión 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Racing, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 5.23. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Juárez
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Racing lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 Jul 2027
3‑0, and Ignacio Valsangiácomo took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Racing tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $2.5M sale of Sebastián Marfort
He is going to Zwolle, the club has $2.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Racing may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Jul 2027
Sebastián Marfort has left for Zwolle in a $2.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tomás Kummer 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 Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Pablo Chavarría 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 ratings5 Jul 2027
A performance of 9.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.