Marked for Ignacio Da Silva
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jun 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignacio Da Silva
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Platense
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Platense is running low.
Squad5 Jun 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 Platense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Platense counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Platense now.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Platense asked and Paysandu FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Platense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Muguerza 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.
Match3 Jun 2028
Atenas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Brian Coates after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignacio Da Silva
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market29 May 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 The request is on a desk at Platense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 May 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 Platense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The terraces29 May 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Enrique Almeida 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.
Squad29 May 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 4 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Platense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Borgarelli 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.
Match27 May 2028
A goal on 95 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings29 May 2028
A mark of 7.84, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignacio Da Silva
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Platense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match20 May 2028
It had gone 9 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Market22 May 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 Platense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2028
Words exchanged at Platense
Juan Pedro Riva 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Platense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Muguerza 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.
The terraces22 May 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Enzo Borgarelli 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.
Match20 May 2028
A 1‑0 win over Canadian, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Marked 8.18 — 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
124% of the income goes out in wages at Platense
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
No hiding place for Flavio Scarone
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 May 2028
Ignacio Da Silva damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Match13 May 2028
No end in sight to Platense's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Platense has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 May 2028
Juan Pedro Riva 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Platense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Muguerza 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 May 2028
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.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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.
The dugout15 May 2028
A promise honoured at Platense
Something was said to Anthony Hernández and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout15 May 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.
The dugout15 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Brian Coates chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Platense
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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Juan Muguerza 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 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Marked 7.40. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Platense will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Brian Coates after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Platense, and both men came out saying it was fine.