Marked for Noah Quiroga
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
“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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Andres Alvarez
8 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Manuel Araujo 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match6 Feb 2027
Veracruz win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Tijuana will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Logan Farrington takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Logan Farrington provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market8 Feb 2027
Noah Quiroga hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Match6 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Logan Farrington’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Veracruz.
Squad8 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Jesus Salcedo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Veracruz
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
Chastening afternoon for Veracruz
A 0‑3 beating by Atlas was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market4 Jan 2027
Veracruz say no — this time
The offer from Pumas UNAM for Ivan Guardado 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Veracruz have had the benefit of it.
Market4 Jan 2027
Raul Ochoa hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Veracruz
4 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ivan 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.
Squad4 Jan 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Nobody left the Veracruz dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Andres Alvarez 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Squad30 Nov 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
Steady
Market23 Nov 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.
Squad23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Andres Alvarez at his very best
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Veracruz.
Match21 Nov 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Andres Alvarez had Veracruz level again within 1 minutes, and Leon never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad23 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑4 to Toluca, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Noah Quiroga: 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.” Veracruz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Andres Alvarez 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.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Boardroom16 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Veracruz told Manuel Araujo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Veracruz
8 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: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Efrain Jimenez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Veracruz told Antônio Carlos something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad12 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Veracruz 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Add another name to the list: Puebla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Raul Ochoa. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.
Match5 Sep 2026
Atlas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michael Pérez, and the manager let it.
Market7 Sep 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Atlas will make the call about Roberto Moreno this week. Veracruz have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Noah Quiroga dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 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.
Market31 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
The Morelia deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Christian Rodriguez reports back to Veracruz with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Antônio Carlos 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Cruz Azul pay $310.0K, 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
$16.6M from Everton for Cesar Araujo. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
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.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $16.6M sale of Cesar Araujo
He is going to Everton, the club has $16.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Sebastian Salcedo again, and this time the name on the line is Monterrey. Veracruz are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andres Alvarez and Veracruz agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Dorados, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Morelia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Edgar Martínez has pre-agreed a move to Veracruz, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Roberto Moreno 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.