“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 The request is on a desk at Maipú, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Nicolás Heiz 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.
Mariano Moyano 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maipú told Víctor Barrera something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Maipú will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
5 goals in 37 games at Brown de Adrogué — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maipú updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nicolás Heiz 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.
Lautaro Vargas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Viguet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Víctor Barrera is on it.
At 20, Víctor Barrera has come through every age group this club has, and now watches a borrowed player of much the same level start every week. An academy notices these things, and so do the parents in the stand.
Lucas Más 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Heiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maipú told Gastón Mansilla something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Eimi Fernández is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Viguet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 20, Víctor Barrera has come through every age group this club has, and now watches a borrowed player of much the same level start every week. An academy notices these things, and so do the parents in the stand.
Lucas Más 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Heiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maipú they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Heiz 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.
Mariano Moyano 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maipú, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Lucas Más 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Juan Carlos Silva after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Baladán 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.
7.85, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Heiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maipú this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Maipú game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gimnasia La Plata runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Juan Carlos Silva chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Maipú asked and Atlético Tucumán said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maipú this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Juan Carlos Silva after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Viguet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is 24, he has been here since he was a boy, and the shirt he grew up expecting has been given to somebody flown in for it. That grievance belongs to the town as much as to the player.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maipú can pretend not to have heard.
Maipú asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Marked 6.81 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Lucas Más 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Juan Carlos Silva left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Baladán 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gastón Mansilla trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Heiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Juan Pablo De la Reta 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.
“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 Maipú, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maipú, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Víctor Barrera is on it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lisandro Cabrera may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“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 Maipú, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maipú this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Arnijas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Viguet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maipú know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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 Maipú, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Aron Agüero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nicolás Heiz 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.
Comunicaciones have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lisandro Cabrera signs something — a contract at Maipú or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Maipú will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maipú can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Viguet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Viguet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Heiz 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.
Juan Pablo Gobetto 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.
17 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.
Nobody at Maipú will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maipú. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maipú this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Arnijas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.