Marked for Santiago Salcedo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Pumas UNAM, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Sep 2026
Veracruz leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Joaquín Moxica is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Luis Herrera 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Veracruz
Angel Guardado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
CSKA Moscow wanted more than $10.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market7 Sep 2026
Veracruz say no — this time
The offer from Pescara for Santiago Salcedo 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 targets7 Sep 2026
The deal with Santos Laguna is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Veracruz close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rosario Central is saying, and nobody at Veracruz is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The window shuts on the Luis Vega deal
Veracruz ran out of time with Santos Laguna. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Herrera 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Veracruz
Alexis Marquez 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Aug 2026
Dorados will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Veracruz were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Veracruz people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
Levante come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Veracruz did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” FC Cincinnati had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.75 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Veracruz asked and Cruz Azul said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miguel Lozano and Veracruz agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Dorados have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manuel Gallardo. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market3 Aug 2026
Veracruz say no — this time
The offer from Athletic Bilbao for Carlos Rodriguez 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Juan Herrera takes the afternoon — 8.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Herrera provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.36 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Veracruz heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Veracruz
Carlos Rodriguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Veracruz have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Veracruz
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Herrera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
At 22 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.