Marked for Facundo Luna
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.12, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ezequiel Esquivel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“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 dugout15 Mar 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad15 Mar 2032
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match13 Mar 2032
Minute 86, against Almirante Brown, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match13 Mar 2032
A 2‑2 draw with Almirante Brown leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match6 Mar 2032
Maximiliano Meléndez had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Nueva Chicago were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings8 Mar 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings8 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ezequiel Esquivel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Mar 2032
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad8 Mar 2032
A place in the month's best eleven for Facundo Luna
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Facundo Luna has come out of that comparison in the side, and Chacarita Juniors have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ezequiel Esquivel is on it.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Miguel Quiroga after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Sep 2031
21 goals and a season average of 7.70 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Sep 2031
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad15 Sep 2031
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Russo, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match13 Sep 2031
Beaten 4‑5, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match13 Sep 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Chacarita Juniors and Central Norte, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Facundo Luna
“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 ratings15 Sep 2031
Marked 8.34. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Chacarita Juniors.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 4‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Aug 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Alexis Domínguez
43 goals and a season average of 7.99 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Aug 2031
Beaten 2‑5 by Deportivo Riestra, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Aug 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Facundo Luna and Chacarita Juniors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match9 Aug 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Chacarita Juniors and Deportivo Riestra, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match9 Aug 2031
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The terraces11 Aug 2031
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ezequiel Esquivel 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 May 2031
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Morón the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Chacarita Juniors will enjoy reviewing.
Squad5 May 2031
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings5 May 2031
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.74, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad5 May 2031
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad5 May 2031
A season average of 7.54 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad5 May 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ezequiel Esquivel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 May 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Player ratings5 May 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match3 May 2031
It finished 4‑4, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Facundo Luna
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The dugout
When it matters, Gonzalo Mottes plays
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict