Marked for Rodolfo Gutierrez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Andrés Araujo: 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Omar Mireles 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Barrios 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Alan Ramos, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market23 Apr 2029
The name of Nestor Sanchez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Veracruz say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Oct 2028
A 2-goal lead gone for Veracruz
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Puebla kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Veracruz will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Match14 Oct 2028
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 ratings16 Oct 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match14 Oct 2028
Veracruz are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Alejandro Gutiérrez 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 Oct 2028
Rafael Barrios 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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Nestor Sanchez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduardo Teixeira
38 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.
Match23 Aug 2028
Veracruz through in the cup
A 3‑0 win over Chiapas, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by Santos Laguna, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
A debut Kevin Borges will not forget — 7.47
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.47 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Sebastián Cervantes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Veracruz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Alejandro Gutiérrez 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
Uneasy
Squad1 May 2028
Joaquín Rojas: 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Oribe Montes 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Barrios 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
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Omar Mireles 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Rafael Barrios 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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.
Market24 Apr 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nestor Sanchez signs something — a contract at Veracruz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Nicolás Castro
18 goals and a season average of 7.59 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Vladimir Loroña 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Castro 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Dorados
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Mario Mosset: 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.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Nicolás Castro 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.
The terraces10 Jan 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Brandan Craig 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.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Jan 2028
Chiapas are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Dorados will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Veracruz boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Oribe Montes
11 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Omar Mireles 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Add another name to the list: Dorados have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rodolfo Gutierrez. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Ninety minutes of Oribe Montes at his very best
Marked 8.58. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Veracruz.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aarón Arredondo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Oct 2027
The cup run ends for Veracruz
1‑3 against Cruz Azul, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Luan Polli 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 Nov 2027
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oribe Montes 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 ratings1 Nov 2027
A performance of 9.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match30 Oct 2027
Three points for Veracruz, 2‑1 the final word against Morelia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces1 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Rodolfo Gutierrez 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Marked 8.56 — 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Marked 8.45 — 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.