Marked for Sebastián Aranda
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jun 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sport Huancayo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Jun 2030
The offer from Melgar for Lucas Ábalos was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market17 Jun 2030
“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.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Sport Huancayo asked and Universitario said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 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 Sport Huancayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Jun 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.40, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match15 Jun 2030
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 May 2030
“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.
Squad6 May 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Julián Fernández commits to Sport Huancayo for another 2 years.
Player ratings6 May 2030
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.
Player ratings6 May 2030
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad6 May 2030
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout6 May 2030
Something was said to Piero Magallanes and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad6 May 2030
Álvaro Guevara 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.
Squad6 May 2030
A place in the month's best eleven for Javier Iritier
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Javier Iritier has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sport Huancayo have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout6 May 2030
Half-satisfied: Miguel Abram on the draw
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sport Huancayo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Apr 2030
“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.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Julián Fernández 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Antoniel Armoa arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Antoniel Armoa has, at Sport Huancayo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“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.
Match6 Apr 2030
0‑1 to Juan Aurich, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Miguel Abram to a room that had heard them before.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Antoniel Armoa commits to Sport Huancayo for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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 Sport Huancayo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Julián Fernández 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.
Match2 Mar 2030
1‑2 to Melgar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brandon Palacios, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Diego Pavia slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Diego Pavia is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Market4 Mar 2030
Axel Chávez told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Axel Chávez has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sport Huancayo.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Piero Magallanes is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jan 2030
A fracture rules Jeremy Rostaing out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sport Huancayo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jan 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 Sport Huancayo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Álvaro Guevara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Macías was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sport Huancayo will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sport Huancayo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market28 Jan 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sport Huancayo, another week without a signature from Alan Barrionuevo.
Market28 Jan 2030
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sport Huancayo money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jan 2030
A fracture rules Jeremy Rostaing out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sport Huancayo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sandier Alguedas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sport Huancayo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Alejandro Pósito 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at Sport Huancayo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Yovera 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Sport Huancayo are still strangers to each other
7 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.
Market21 Jan 2030
“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.
Market21 Jan 2030
Experience through the door at Sport Huancayo
Alan Barrionuevo arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sport Huancayo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market21 Jan 2030
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Sport Huancayo money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Dec 2029
78 days out for Jeremy Rostaing after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sport Huancayo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sport Huancayo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market10 Dec 2029
“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 Sport Huancayo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2029
Everything agreed with Newell's Old Boys, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universidad Catolica have kept their man, and Sport Huancayo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Mauro Martín 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 Dec 2029
Gustavo Martini Rissi 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.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2029
A loan enquiry to River Plate: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2029
A loan enquiry to River Plate: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matteo Cucinotta
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sport Huancayo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Lucas Ábalos out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sport Huancayo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market22 Oct 2029
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sport Huancayo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Mauro Martín 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Jefferson Gutiérrez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Sep 2029
Alexis Macías damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market17 Sep 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sport Huancayo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Julián Fernández 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.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sport Huancayo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Lucas Mejía 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.
Market17 Sep 2029
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Sport Huancayo could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mauro Martín has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Julián Fernández 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Mauro Martín 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
6 new faces, and Sport Huancayo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sport Huancayo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Mejía, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sport Huancayo told Sebastián Aranda something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Jul 2029
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market2 Jul 2029
The bid was some way short and Sport Huancayo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
Sandier Alguedas: 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.” Sport Huancayo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Julián Fernández 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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Sport Huancayo asked and Godoy Cruz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match30 Jun 2029
Alianza Atletico left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jun 2029
“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 Sport Huancayo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sport Huancayo have done the hard part with Huracán, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Jorge Cabezudo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Mineiro have kept their man, and Sport Huancayo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces25 Jun 2029
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Álvaro Guevara 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
Upbeat
Market18 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sport Huancayo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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 Sport Huancayo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sport Huancayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match16 Jun 2029
A 1‑0 win over UTC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mauro Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings18 Jun 2029
7.72, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Sport Huancayo had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.