Marked for Darwin Arango
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Nov 2030
José Buralli and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
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Squad18 Nov 2030
Lautaro Parisi 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 dugout18 Nov 2030
The manager makes an example of Darwin Arango
“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.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
Raúl Peralta 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 Ferro Carril Oeste, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout11 Nov 2030
Raúl Peralta: 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.” Ferro Carril Oeste have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Nov 2030
José Buralli 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.
Boardroom11 Nov 2030
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Parisi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
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The dugout11 Nov 2030
The manager makes an example of Leonel Moya
“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.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
Darwin Arango knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Darwin Arango trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Aug 2030
Mateo Acosta takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings12 Aug 2030
Age has not caught Mateo Acosta yet — 9.88
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad12 Aug 2030
13 goals and a season average of 7.40. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad12 Aug 2030
José Buralli 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 dugout12 Aug 2030
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Match10 Aug 2030
A 3‑1 win over Almagro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Russo and Ferro Carril Oeste agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ferro Carril Oeste pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Gabriel Domínguez, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jun 2030
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferro Carril Oeste lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match8 Jun 2030
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Matías Kabalín decided nobody was going anywhere. Madryn had no time left to answer.
Market10 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Agropecuario Argentino waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ferro Carril Oeste is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Jun 2030
“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.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
No thanks: Axel Baltar rejects the move
Ferro Carril Oeste had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Huracán, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Jun 2030
José Buralli and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aldosivi have kept their man, and Ferro Carril Oeste go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces10 Jun 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 16-year-old it feels ownership of. Russo 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Apr 2030
The knee: Mateo Acosta out for 54 days
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ferro Carril Oeste lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match6 Apr 2030
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ferro Carril Oeste has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.89, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad8 Apr 2030
José Buralli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Apr 2030
Atlanta left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
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The dugout8 Apr 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gabriel Domínguez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Russo makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.