Marked for Benjamín Rodríguez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Aug 2030
Skonto refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Tempers go at Skonto
Matteo Trombini 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Viguet and Skonto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jun 2030
Albion sell their best player to Skonto
$1.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Match10 Jun 2030
Albion are in real trouble now
Position 14, 12 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market10 Jun 2030
Yordi López has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Albion they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market10 Jun 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Jun 2030
Albion come up short against Cerro
Cerro left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Jun 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lucas Coronel and Albion agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Jun 2030
The manager makes an example of Enzo Brizuela
“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.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match10 Jun 2030
Skonto up to position 1
26 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match8 Jun 2030
Skonto cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market10 Jun 2030
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Albion drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Skonto
Matteo Trombini 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 ratings10 Jun 2030
A performance of 9.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match8 Jun 2030
Ventspils made Skonto work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
A performance of 8.90 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
Marked 8.26 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
Juan Hernandez has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Albion can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market4 Mar 2030
“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 Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Amaral, and the manager let it.
Match2 Mar 2030
Boston River left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Mar 2030
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Albion have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Lionel Paz runs at them all day
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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
The captaincy has been taken off Santiago Costa. Albion will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Market4 Mar 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Apr 2029
No end in sight to Albion's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Albion has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Yordi López 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 Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Apr 2029
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Pereira, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Albion know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Albion may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match3 Mar 2029
4 matches without a win for Albion
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Albion are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Tempers go at Albion
Yordi López 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.
Match3 Mar 2029
Albion come up short against Colon
Colon left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Luis Barbat gets it from the manager
“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 ratings5 Mar 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.58, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Albion have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Marked 5.51, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
In brief
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The terraces
The press have found their man in Nahuel Roldán
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Boardroom
The Albion production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Albion may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Tempers go at Albion
Santiago Costa 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Santiago Hernandez is a Albion player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market12 Feb 2029
The shirt still fits. Sergio Rodriguez is back at Albion, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market12 Feb 2029
The shirt still fits. Gonzalo Diaz is back at Albion, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market12 Feb 2029
As if he never left: Rodrigo Rios returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Rodrigo Rios is a Albion player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad12 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Joaquín Varela
“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.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Albion board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.