Marked for Daniel Gutierrez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Michael Pérez out for 46 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.
Market12 Apr 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.
Squad12 Apr 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
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
Squad5 Apr 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
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Manuel Araujo and Veracruz agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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 ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.48 on the card, and the Veracruz support went home talking about one name.
Squad8 Mar 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Sergio Ceballos will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The terraces11 Jan 2027
Supporters turn on the $620.0K sale of Francisco Vazquez
He is going to Dorados, the club has $620.0K 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Dorados paid $620.0K 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Veracruz will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match9 Jan 2027
Daniel Gutierrez scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Tigres, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad11 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.
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
Crisis
Squad14 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Queretaro, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.21 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Manuel Araujo, 34, rolls back the years — 7.81
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market26 Oct 2026
Veracruz may not be able to give Marco Reyes what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marco Reyes wants continental football; whether Veracruz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Andres Alvarez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Veracruz.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Andres Alvarez at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Veracruz.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Alberto Sánchez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Veracruz
A 0‑3 beating by Tigres was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Veracruz
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Veracruz are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Chiapas moved on, Francisco Vazquez reports back to Veracruz, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sebastian Salcedo 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antônio Carlos, and the manager let it.
Boardroom14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 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.
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.