Marked for Daniel Blanco
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Jan 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chaco For Ever will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Chaco For Ever now.
Market21 Jan 2030
Alan Duré puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jan 2030
David Valdez 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 Chaco For Ever this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at Chaco For Ever training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Blanco 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Ricardo Garay has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Chaco For Ever 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jan 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chaco For Ever will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces14 Jan 2030
The mood at Chaco For Ever has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market14 Jan 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaco For Ever this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Matías Candia 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chaco For Ever know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Bautista Núñez has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 Dec 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market3 Dec 2029
“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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Ramírez and Chaco For Ever agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 2029
David Valdez 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 Dec 2029
David Valdez loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is David Valdez's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Daniel Blanco 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 terraces3 Dec 2029
The stands have heard the Imanol Enríquez talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Chaco For Ever would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Nov 2029
“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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Chaco For Ever now.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Gonzalo Melgarejo 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Chaco For Ever training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Blanco 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Marcos Giménez 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 Marcos Giménez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chaco For Ever is running low.
Market12 Nov 2029
“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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Gabriel Ramírez 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
Crisis
The terraces22 Oct 2029
The mood at Chaco For Ever has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market22 Oct 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chaco For Ever can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Oct 2029
David Valdez 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.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
110% of the income goes out in wages at Chaco For Ever
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chaco For Ever know it.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chaco For Ever, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 Sep 2029
The mood at Chaco For Ever has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Sep 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chaco For Ever can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chaco For Ever this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonzalo Melgarejo, and the manager let it.
Match22 Sep 2029
Defensores Unidos left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Matías Candia 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.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
Wages eat 111% of everything Chaco For Ever earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad24 Sep 2029
6 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Chaco For Ever is running low.
Match15 Sep 2029
0‑3 against Defensores, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market17 Sep 2029
Matías Candia 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 Chaco For Ever can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Sep 2029
David Valdez 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 Chaco For Ever this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2029
David Valdez gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Chaco For Ever training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Candia 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.
Boardroom17 Sep 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad17 Sep 2029
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Chaco For Ever lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
The terraces17 Sep 2029
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Chaco For Ever
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market20 Aug 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chaco For Ever can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.42, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Gonzalo Melgarejo 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Brian Nievas gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chaco For Ever are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match18 Aug 2029
It needed Imanol Enríquez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Morón, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Chaco For Ever training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Blanco 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
Upbeat
The terraces30 Jul 2029
The mood at Chaco For Ever has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market30 Jul 2029
“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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Jul 2029
David Valdez 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.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.86, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match28 Jul 2029
A 1‑0 win over Ferro Carril Oeste, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
108% of the income goes out in wages at Chaco For Ever
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“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.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 May 2029
Pressure builds in the Chaco For Ever boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
David Valdez 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.
Player ratings28 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 May 2029
“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 terraces28 May 2029
Everybody has an opinion about Imanol Enríquez
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad28 May 2029
Daniel Blanco 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.
Match26 May 2029
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Defensores Unidos came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Squad28 May 2029
Héctor Zabala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Chaco For Ever 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Mar 2029
“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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Gonzalo Melgarejo 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.
Match24 Mar 2029
Temperley left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonzalo Melgarejo, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Brian Nievas asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Mar 2029
“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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
The numbers do not look good at Chaco For Ever
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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
David Valdez 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.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Imanol Enríquez
“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.
Match17 Mar 2029
0‑1 to San Telmo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces19 Mar 2029
Everybody has an opinion about David Valdez
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad19 Mar 2029
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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Daniel Blanco 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Mar 2029
“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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Age has not caught Gonzalo Cañete yet — 8.11
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad5 Mar 2029
David Valdez 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Chaco For Ever are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Ninety minutes of Imanol Enríquez at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chaco For Ever.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Grisha Paronyan 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Daniel Blanco 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 ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Feb 2029
“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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Feb 2029
David Valdez 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 Chaco For Ever this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Imanol Enríquez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“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.
Match24 Feb 2029
It needed Imanol Enríquez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Almirante Brown, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gonzalo Melgarejo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Chaco For Ever training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Blanco 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 ratings26 Feb 2029
Marked 5.52. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Alan Duré could not find anything
5.66. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Feb 2029
“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.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
The numbers do not look good at Chaco For Ever
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
David Valdez 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.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Chaco For Ever know it.
The terraces19 Feb 2029
Everybody has an opinion about Imanol Enríquez
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Chacarita Juniors will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Mar 2028
Daniel Blanco damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
2‑5 to Temperley, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market27 Mar 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 Chaco For Ever, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces27 Mar 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad27 Mar 2028
David Valdez 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Chaco For Ever and Temperley, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Chaco For Ever training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Zabaleta 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.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
Daniel Blanco damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Market20 Mar 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
David Valdez 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 Chaco For Ever this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Mar 2028
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of David Valdez
“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.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
Wages eat 126% of everything Chaco For Ever earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Agustín Zabaleta 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 ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.