Marked for Catriel Albarello
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Catriel Albarello could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.57
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.57, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Julián Marchioni, 35, rolls back the years — 8.26
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Daniel González has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Real Pilar is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Daniel González 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Real Pilar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Rojas 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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Iván Smith beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alejo Ross has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match11 Mar 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Dylan Vergara’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Real Pilar.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market2 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Facundo Krüger had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market2 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Santino Crego
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santino Crego will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Michaël Cuisance 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The clock did what Huracán would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Match31 Jul 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Aug 2027
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Matías Magdaleno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Aug 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 0‑2 Cristian Domínguez left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Aug 2027
This is not rotation. Daniel González has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Real Pilar is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Banfield keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Federico Castro and Real Pilar agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Daniel González and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Real Pilar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Vergara 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Catriel Albarello has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Real Pilar have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Market2 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel González has his answer from Real Pilar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Iván Smith
“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.
Match31 Jul 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.