Marked for Ivan Gutierrez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jan 2029
Ivan Gutierrez damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Match3 Jan 2029
Atlas bow out of the cup
Cruz Azul go through and Atlas go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match6 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Atlas's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atlas has to find a result from somewhere.
Market8 Jan 2029
Monterrey come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Atlas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market8 Jan 2029
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Edgar Zaldívar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match6 Jan 2029
Atlas cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club America have kept their man, and Atlas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market8 Jan 2029
No place for Adonis Frías in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Adonis Frías has his answer from Atlas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Jorge Rodríguez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Jan 2029
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 Jan 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Atlas's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atlas has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Jan 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Atlas have had the benefit of it.
Market1 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market1 Jan 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jorge Sánchez has his answer from Atlas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Atlas
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryan Mmaee, and the manager let it.
Match30 Dec 2028
Guadalajara left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
In brief
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Squad
Jorge Rodríguez falls out with a teammate over standards
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Player ratings
Bryan González beats them one at a time
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
Ivan Gutierrez damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
The wait goes on for Atlas
5 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Atlas
Juan Dinenno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Ángel Estrada 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlos Galicia, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market25 Dec 2028
The name of Jorge Sánchez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Atlas say nothing, which says plenty.
Match23 Dec 2028
Atlas draw a blank against Leon
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Leon defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Dec 2028
Ivan Gutierrez damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
Toluca punish Atlas for switching off
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Juan Dinenno will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Atlas escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Juan Dinenno, 34, rolls back the years — 8.10
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.10 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match16 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Atlas's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atlas has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Atlas
Juan Dinenno 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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Camilo Vargas
“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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Atlas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Rodríguez 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Adonis Frías wants out of the spotlight
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Match16 Dec 2028
It needed Juan Dinenno to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Toluca, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Dec 2028
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Atlas
Juan Dinenno 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.
Match9 Dec 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atlas and Chiapas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match9 Dec 2028
A bad afternoon for Atlas against Chiapas
2‑4 to Chiapas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Brandon Brocksom arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Brandon Brocksom has, at Atlas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The terraces11 Dec 2028
Atlas supporters have found a favourite in Eliás Montiel
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Eliás Montiel 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Jorge Rodríguez 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 ratings11 Dec 2028
Marked 8.21 — 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.