There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manuel Marquez provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Erik Pimentel has agreed terms with Toluca for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge 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.
Christian Lainez 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.
The goal that put Monterrey ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Veracruz equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Squad25 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Amaury Morales's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Jorge 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.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.94, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Manuel Marquez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Veracruz has been clear about where Santiago Márquez stands, which is more than many ever get.
14 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Veracruz training over how hard people work
SquadDaniel Moreno has improved at 27, which nobody expected
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
The phone has started ringing about Jorge Herrera again, and this time the name on the line is Tigres. Veracruz are listening politely and promising nothing.
The chase for Alejandro Arana ended with $260.0K changing hands and Chiapas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Jan 2028
5 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.
48 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jorge 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.
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Jorge 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Carlos Ochoa. 2‑0 against Dorados, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Amaury Morales 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Amaury Morales. 2‑0 against Guadalajara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not go to Vancouver Whitecaps to sit and watch. I want to come back to Veracruz and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
Nobody at Veracruz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
96 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.
Christian Lainez 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Mamani. 2‑1 against Chiapas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 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.
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.
Jorge Herrera was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.12. 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jorge Herrera. 1‑0 against Club America, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Veracruz has been clear about where Sergio Ceballos stands, which is more than many ever get.
Jorge 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.
The fee is $440.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Leon drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Veracruz has been clear about where Jorge Alberto Sánchez stands, which is more than many ever get.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.50 for the rest of it.
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.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jorge Ramirez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cesar Romo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Juan Jimenez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hugo Guardado has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Mateo Mamani 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
In brief
SquadDaniel Moreno has improved at 26, which nobody expected
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Christian Lainez's mistake
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.
Nobody at Veracruz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Veracruz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Patricio Salas 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Veracruz and Monterrey in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Veracruz can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Erik Pimentel will call it something else in private.
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.
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.
Marked 7.98. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Veracruz and Pumas UNAM, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Pablo Tejeda is living that version at Veracruz, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Pineda, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Javier Gallardo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Jorge 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.
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.
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.