Marked for Erick Marquez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Veracruz
11 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.
Squad15 Feb 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match13 Feb 2027
Puebla left with the points after a 4‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Rodrygo Rangel
16 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Veracruz and Puebla in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A performance of 9.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hernán Acosta 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Aug 2026
The unthinkable, invoiced: Carlos Guardado sold
Arsenal arrived with $13.0M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Match19 Aug 2026
Veracruz march on in the cup
Chiapas are out and Veracruz go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Chastening afternoon for Veracruz
A 0‑3 beating by Club America was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Veracruz sell a favourite for $13.0M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Carlos Guardado was one of the reasons people came, and $13.0M does not replace that by itself.
Market24 Aug 2026
Erick Marquez 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Veracruz will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market24 Aug 2026
Business is business: Victor Corona goes
Santos Laguna paid $350.0K 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Ramírez 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.
Squad24 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Queretaro had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Veracruz did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
Guadalajara pay $2.2M, 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Juan Ramírez 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jorge Torres Nilo 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Raul Ramirez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Veracruz.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Raul Ramirez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Luis Edson 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
Match1 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Veracruz say no — this time
The offer from FC Cincinnati for Fernando Vega 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Ramirez 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Luis Edson 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.
Squad3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Santiago Vega knocks on the manager's door
“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.