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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 7.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
418 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Artigas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Artigas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2046
Arturo Marini 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Artigas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 The request is on a desk at Artigas, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 words a physio says slowly. 149 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.
Arturo Marini 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 words a physio says slowly. 156 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.
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.
Words at Artigas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Dimitrișin 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.
Tomás Molinas 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Artigas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadRenato Silva has become a man the manager trusts
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alfredo Giraldo is living that version at Artigas, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ignacio Hernandez has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Artigas have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad6 Nov 2045
Words at Artigas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Dimitrișin 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Tacuarembo the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Artigas will enjoy reviewing.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Artigas did not have in the autumn.
Squad31 Jul 2045
Words at Artigas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Dimitrișin 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 mood at Artigas 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.
Oscar Perez had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Boston River were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.71 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Artigas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Artigas has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 May 2045
Words at Artigas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Dimitrișin 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.
Tomás Molinas 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.
11 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.
Nobody at Artigas 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.
10 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.
Squad17 Apr 2045
Words at Artigas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Dimitrișin 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.
Tomás Molinas 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.
7.79, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Tomás Molinas 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.
He is going to Rampla Juniors, the club has $470.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Artigas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Rampla Juniors paid $470.0K and Artigas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The name of Franco Rossi has come up in conversations Artigas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.