Marked for Facundo Moretti
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Sep 2028
Facundo Moretti damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Axel Bordón has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Güemes is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Güemes
Braian Aguilar 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Güemes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angel Uñates 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
Juan Mendoza 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.
Market25 Sep 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Manuel Granados has his answer from Güemes; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market25 Sep 2028
The name of Juan Mendoza keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Güemes say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout25 Sep 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Facundo Rizzi has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Güemes that is a harder question to answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Sep 2028
Facundo Moretti damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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 dugout18 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Maico Quiroz has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Güemes is pretending otherwise.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Milton Gerez 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 Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Angel Uñates 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
6 new faces, and Güemes are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Juan Mendoza 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.
The dugout18 Sep 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.
Market18 Sep 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Facundo Rizzi signs something — a contract at Güemes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market18 Sep 2028
Güemes have made Juan Mendoza available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Sep 2028
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Güemes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout11 Sep 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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Güemes counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Güemes now.
Market11 Sep 2028
Güemes have made Emil Niemann available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Emil Niemann 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Maico Quiroz’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market11 Sep 2028
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Güemes could get for him.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The training reports on Luciano Centurión 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager plants his flag on Walter Juárez
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Walter Juárez’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Moretti
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Güemes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Sep 2028
The season ends: position 2 for Güemes
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 59 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match4 Sep 2028
Güemes are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 59 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Emil Niemann has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Güemes is pretending otherwise.
Match2 Sep 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“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; Güemes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Güemes
Milton Gerez 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
San Martín left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
Emil Niemann 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Aug 2028
Facundo Moretti damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Match28 Aug 2028
Nobody above Güemes
First, on 59 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market28 Aug 2028
Kapaz come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Güemes did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Maico Quiroz goes up and wins it — 7.96
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.96 for the rest of it.
Match26 Aug 2028
Whatever happens, Güemes do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Axel Bordón has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Güemes is pretending otherwise.
Match26 Aug 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gianluca Pugliese. 2‑1 against Nueva Chicago, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Angel Uñates 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 dugout28 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Aug 2028
Facundo Moretti damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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 dugout21 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Maico Quiroz has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Güemes is pretending otherwise.
Match19 Aug 2028
Whatever happens, Güemes do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Güemes
Angel Uñates 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Looking ahead21 Aug 2028
Top-of-the-table clash for Güemes
Nueva Chicago next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Angel Uñates
“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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Güemes are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
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
Upbeat
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Moretti
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Güemes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Juan Mendoza is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.46 with 32 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.74, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match12 Aug 2028
6 unbeaten for Güemes
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Güemes did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A falling-out at Güemes
Braian Aguilar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Rizzi, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Angel Uñates 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.
Match12 Aug 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Match12 Aug 2028
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.