Marked for Alejandro Coates
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Squad1 Jan 2029
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plaza Colonia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Plaza Colonia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Alex Bruno honoured for the season
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Plaza Colonia had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Lucas Carrizo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Tucumán is saying, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
$340.0K on the table at Potencia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
An offer of $300.0K for Diego Sena
Plaza Colonia have gone to Bella Italia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Lucas Carrizo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending otherwise.
Squad4 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plaza Colonia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Dec 2028
The phone has started ringing about Diego Becker again, and this time the name on the line is Nacional. Plaza Colonia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
Plaza Colonia asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Dec 2028
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
Fortaleza have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
Plaza Colonia have made the call to Rosario Central. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market4 Dec 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Nov 2028
Maximiliano Villa 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 dugout13 Nov 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
The Alex Bruno story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alex Bruno signs something — a contract at Plaza Colonia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market13 Nov 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Plaza Colonia, another week without a signature from Diego Villalba.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Diego Villalba 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 Diego Villalba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 Nov 2028
Plaza Colonia have let the market know Natanael Guzmán can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Yacouba Meïté wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Plaza Colonia have no good answer.
Squad13 Nov 2028
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Plaza Colonia the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
The Plaza Colonia production line keeps running
28 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Sep 2028
Alex Bruno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A muscle injury and 17 days out for Natanael Guzmán
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Plaza Colonia will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Cirilo Pereyra gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cirilo Pereyra has just signed for Plaza Colonia, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cirilo Pereyra and Plaza Colonia agree another 4 years.
Market18 Sep 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Plaza Colonia signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market18 Sep 2028
A year in the wrong dressing room for Kevin Morgan
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Plaza Colonia argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Market18 Sep 2028
The loan was meant to give him football. 1 games and 0 goals later he is back at Plaza Colonia no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Michael López has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Plaza Colonia 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.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Pablo Adorno 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Joaquín Silva 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Loan watch11 Sep 2028
“I did not go to Deportivo Italiano to sit and watch. I want to come back to Plaza Colonia and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 31 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Diego Becker 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Michael Covea is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Yacouba Meïté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Plaza Colonia 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Pablo Adorno 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
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Plaza Colonia, another week without a signature from Michael Covea.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Aug 2028
54 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market14 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Diego Becker
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Becker will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Plaza Colonia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Diego Becker has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Alex Bruno 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.
Match12 Aug 2028
Cerrito left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch14 Aug 2028
“I watch every Plaza Colonia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Deportivo Italiano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Lucas Carrizo
“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 dugout14 Aug 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jul 2028
“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 Plaza Colonia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Tacuarembo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match15 Jul 2028
Nobody wants to play Plaza Colonia right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Diego Ruiz Díaz has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Alex Bruno 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.
Match15 Jul 2028
Tacuarembo made Plaza Colonia work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Plaza Colonia asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market19 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Italiano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Deportivo Italiano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Albion, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Tomás Chamorro 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
The name of Lucas Cajes has come up in conversations Deportivo Italiano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout19 Jun 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
Triumph
Market19 Jun 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Yacouba Meïté had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market19 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Miqueas Redín
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miqueas Redín will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Plaza Colonia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Plaza Colonia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Maximiliano Villa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Plaza Colonia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match17 Jun 2028
Three points for Plaza Colonia, 1‑0 the final word against Oriental in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Looking ahead19 Jun 2028
The big one: La Luz come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Plaza Colonia will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
The afternoon belonged to Alex Bruno
A mark of 7.84, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Italiano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match12 Jun 2028
24 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad12 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Italiano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Facundo Núñez 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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match10 Jun 2028
Frontera Rivera left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Looking ahead12 Jun 2028
Huracan del Paso 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 dugout12 Jun 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Italiano can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The deal with Boston River is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Facundo Núñez 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.
Match3 Jun 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Facundo Beltrán 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 dugout5 Jun 2028
“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.
Looking ahead5 Jun 2028
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Deportivo Italiano pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match20 May 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad22 May 2028
Alex Bruno takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market22 May 2028
“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.
Match20 May 2028
Nobody wants to play Plaza Colonia right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match20 May 2028
The run at home goes on for Plaza Colonia
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market22 May 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad22 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alex Bruno and Plaza Colonia agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad22 May 2028
Maximiliano Villa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Ninety minutes of Alex Bruno at his very best
Marked 9.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Plaza Colonia.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 May 2028
29 days out for Santiago Araujo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Italiano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings15 May 2028
A brace, and Facundo Núñez takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Facundo Núñez provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match15 May 2028
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad15 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Italiano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Núñez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom15 May 2028
199% of the income goes out in wages at Deportivo Italiano
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The terraces15 May 2028
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Tomás Chamorro ran the middle of the pitch — 6.61
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.61, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Apr 2028
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A fracture rules Santiago Araujo out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Italiano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match15 Apr 2028
4 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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Yael Ramallo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Apr 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Alvaro Martinez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Lucas Cajes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
64 days out for Santiago Araujo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Italiano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Deportivo Italiano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Lautaro Acuña
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lautaro Acuña will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Italiano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Alejo Sánchez Roa 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Facundo Núñez 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 dugout10 Apr 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.
Looking ahead10 Apr 2028
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Market10 Apr 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces10 Apr 2028
Anger at Plaza Colonia spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad10 Apr 2028
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Plaza Colonia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match10 Apr 2028
14 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Pablo García has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Alex Bruno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Plaza Colonia, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Natanael Guzmán
“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 ratings10 Apr 2028
A mark of 7.91, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
In brief
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The dugout
A promise honoured for Maximiliano Villa
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Player ratings
Leo Sauer beats them one at a time
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Mar 2028
Out, 0‑2 to Cerro Largo, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Tomás Chamorro 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Núñez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Yael Ramallo
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Alvaro Martinez to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Deportivo Italiano will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Nobody at Deportivo Italiano 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces13 Mar 2028
The mood at Plaza Colonia 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Píriz
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plaza Colonia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Maximiliano Villa 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Santiago Otegui has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leo Sauer 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
Alex Bruno 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch13 Mar 2028
“I did not go to Deportivo Italiano to sit and watch. I want to come back to Plaza Colonia and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces17 Jan 2028
The mood at Plaza Colonia 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Píriz
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plaza Colonia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Plaza Colonia boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market17 Jan 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Plaza Colonia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Alex Bruno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Plaza Colonia asked and Boston River said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Lorenzi 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.