Marked for Daniel Muñoz
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 10.00, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad22 Mar 2032
The match ball belongs to Alexis Domínguez, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Russo, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.44
A mark of 8.44 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad22 Mar 2032
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces22 Mar 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Marked 8.58 — 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
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Match20 Mar 2032
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Agropecuario Argentino spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
A brace, and Ezequiel Esquivel takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ezequiel Esquivel provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces9 Feb 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ezequiel Esquivel 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.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
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.” Miguel Quiroga, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ezequiel Esquivel is on it.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Market9 Feb 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chacarita Juniors know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead9 Feb 2032
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gimnasia y Esgrima in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
The plan did not have a place for Daniel Muñoz
Nobody at Chacarita Juniors is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Oct 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ezequiel Esquivel and Chacarita Juniors agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Ezequiel Esquivel 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 dugout13 Oct 2031
Alexis Domínguez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Chacarita Juniors 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.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
Felipe Correa 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 Chacarita Juniors, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad13 Oct 2031
The training reports on Bruno Lucero are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Sep 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Alexis Domínguez
48 goals and a season average of 8.09 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match30 Aug 2031
Alexis Domínguez had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Morón were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
A brace, and Alexis Domínguez takes the afternoon — 9.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexis Domínguez provided it, and the 9.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Words at Chacarita Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezequiel Esquivel 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 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chacarita Juniors.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
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Match30 Aug 2031
A 3‑3 draw with Morón leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad1 Sep 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Muñoz and Chacarita Juniors agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Jan 2031
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Chacarita Juniors will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Luca Acevedo 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.
Market6 Jan 2031
FC Augsburg are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Chacarita Juniors will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
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Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
No hiding place for Bruno Paz
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Paz, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Jan 2031
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lucas Toffoletti has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad6 Jan 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Muñoz and Chacarita Juniors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
A loan enquiry to Atlético Tucumán: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.