The Sacachispas Courier
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Lautaro Torres frozen out at Sacachispas
This is not rotation. Lautaro Torres has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Sacachispas is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Lautaro Torres 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 Sacachispas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Tomás Magnano 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Sacachispas lose Daniel Quiroga
22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Juan Paulo Figueroa
“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 dugout28 Feb 2028
Giovanni Baroni 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 Giovanni Baroni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
When it matters, Santiago Arrieta plays
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.
Looking ahead28 Feb 2028
Juan Ignacio Barbieri goes back to face Flandria
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Juan Ignacio Barbieri’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sacachispas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market28 Feb 2028
The Facundo Troncoso story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Facundo Troncoso signs something — a contract at Sacachispas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
- Market Sacachispas put Facundo Troncoso up for sale
- Squad Juan Ignacio Barbieri has settled at Sacachispas
- Looking ahead Sacachispas travel to Flandria