Marked for Jonathan Guardado
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Veracruz
15 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Uriel Montes breaks a bone — 20 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eduardo Dos Santos and Veracruz agree another 4 years.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Sep 2027
The mood at Veracruz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match4 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Veracruz
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Uriel Montes breaks a bone — 36 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Kevin Escamilla 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 ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Eduardo Dos Santos 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
Lautaro Napolitano scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Atlas, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Héctor Holguín
“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.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
Everybody has an opinion about Héctor Holguín
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Aug 2027
Víctor Guajardo damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Veracruz interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Francisco Guardado keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Uriel Montes out for 74 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Escamilla will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veracruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match31 Jul 2027
7 matches without a win for Veracruz
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Veracruz are no longer polite ones.
Match31 Jul 2027
7 matches without a goal for Veracruz
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduardo Dos Santos 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 ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Jonathan Guardado 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Jun 2027
The mood at Veracruz has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Héctor Holguín damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Héctor Holguín
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Veracruz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match26 Apr 2027
Veracruz sink to position 16
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Feb 2027
Anger at Veracruz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Guardado 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Angel Ochoa 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 ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Feb 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Pachuca defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market22 Feb 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Veracruz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market22 Feb 2027
Veracruz have let the market know Víctor Guajardo can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Tahiel Jiménez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.37
A mark of 8.37 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Aarón Quiros 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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Tahiel Jiménez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Veracruz.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Guardado 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Sergio Ceballos
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Tahiel Jiménez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tahiel Jiménez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Veracruz have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Veracruz pull $5.0M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Jan 2027
28 matches without a win for Veracruz
The run now stands at 28, and the questions being asked around Veracruz are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Veracruz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Veracruz is running low.
Match1 Feb 2027
Every point is an argument now for Veracruz
Position 16 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Aarón Quiros 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Jonathan Guardado 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match30 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Cruz Azul will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Veracruz
26 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Pineda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veracruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.86 beside his name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Guillermo Sanchez 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Jonathan Guardado 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Guillermo Sanchez will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Veracruz
24 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Veracruz
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Veracruz is running low.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑5 by Atlas, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Uriel Salcedo has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Veracruz can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match4 Jan 2027
Veracruz are in real trouble now
Position 16, 8 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Chiapas 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Kevin Escamilla 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
The goals have deserted Veracruz
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Veracruz can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
23 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Anger at Veracruz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Veracruz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Veracruz
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Veracruz can tell you which week it ends in.
Match26 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Guardado 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
22 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market21 Dec 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Pineda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veracruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Miguel Ángel Herrera 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Jonathan Guardado 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
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
20 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
Match7 Dec 2026
Veracruz are in real trouble now
Position 16, 7 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Veracruz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Guillermo Sanchez 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Jonathan Guardado 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.
Squad7 Dec 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
The cruellest goal, and it is Raúl Torres's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Veracruz will not try tonight.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
Anger at Veracruz spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match28 Nov 2026
Chastening afternoon for Veracruz
A 0‑3 beating by Guadalajara was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad30 Nov 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market30 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Veracruz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jonathan Guardado 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Héctor Holguín
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Guillermo Sanchez 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Veracruz
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Veracruz
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Veracruz can tell you which week it ends in.
Match12 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Veracruz
Position 16 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Veracruz
14 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.30. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Chiapas ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Erick Gallardo decides it from twelve yards
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Francisco Pineda, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jonathan Guardado 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Jesus Rodriguez has left for Monterrey in a $270.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Portales 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Veracruz sell a favourite for $4.7M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kevin Vazquez was one of the reasons people came, and $4.7M does not replace that by itself.
Market10 Aug 2026
Cruz Azul pay $4.7M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Alexis Moreno goes
Gil Vicente paid $3.4M and Veracruz took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hector Ramirez commits to Veracruz for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kevin Escamilla 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Veracruz will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Erick Reyes 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.