Marked for Facundo Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Jul 2040
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.
Match28 Jul 2040
12 matches without a win for Plaza Colonia
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Plaza Colonia are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Jul 2040
A knee injury of the worst kind for Martin Gimenez
93 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.
Match30 Jul 2040
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom30 Jul 2040
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.
Match25 Jul 2040
Out, 0‑1 to Wanderers, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad30 Jul 2040
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Jul 2040
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.
Squad30 Jul 2040
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony Matheus 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.
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jun 2040
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match23 Jun 2040
6 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.
Market25 Jun 2040
“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.
Market25 Jun 2040
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Plaza Colonia have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad25 Jun 2040
Mathias Torres: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Plaza Colonia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Jun 2040
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.
Match23 Jun 2040
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Plaza Colonia can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad25 Jun 2040
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Díaz 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.
Player ratings25 Jun 2040
Marked 7.28. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jun 2040
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jun 2040
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match16 Jun 2040
5 matches without a win for Plaza Colonia
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Plaza Colonia are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Jun 2040
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Plaza Colonia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Jun 2040
Tobías Quinteros 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.
Squad18 Jun 2040
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony Matheus 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.
Match16 Jun 2040
Artigas left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings18 Jun 2040
Theo Bravo runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 9. 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
Crisis
Market11 Jun 2040
The offer from Cerro for Theo Bravo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match9 Jun 2040
4 matches without a win for Plaza Colonia
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Plaza Colonia are no longer polite ones.
Market11 Jun 2040
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 Jun 2040
Mateo Molinari 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 Jun 2040
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Díaz 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.
Squad11 Jun 2040
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamín Zuqui, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Jun 2040
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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2040
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Plaza Colonia is running low.
Match4 Jun 2040
Position 16, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom4 Jun 2040
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market4 Jun 2040
“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.
Squad4 Jun 2040
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Benjamín Zuqui commits to Plaza Colonia for another 2 years.
Squad4 Jun 2040
Tobías Quinteros 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.
Market4 Jun 2040
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Plaza Colonia have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match2 Jun 2040
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Feb 2040
A fracture rules Tobías Quinteros out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Plaza Colonia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom6 Feb 2040
The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Market6 Feb 2040
“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.
Market6 Feb 2040
Mathias Castro has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Plaza Colonia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Feb 2040
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.
Squad6 Feb 2040
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Díaz 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Jun 2039
Juan Pablo Patiño damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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 terraces6 Jun 2039
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.
Market6 Jun 2039
“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.
Boardroom6 Jun 2039
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Plaza Colonia
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad6 Jun 2039
A one-man rearguard from Leandro Díaz
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad6 Jun 2039
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.
Match4 Jun 2039
Whatever happens, Plaza Colonia do not lose
6 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.
Squad6 Jun 2039
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Neves 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.
Market6 Jun 2039
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Plaza Colonia will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 May 2039
Juan Pablo Patiño damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Match18 May 2039
Cerro are out and Plaza Colonia go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad23 May 2039
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings23 May 2039
No sign of nerves from Liam Costa at 21 — 7.74
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Liam Costa did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings23 May 2039
Samuel Neves pops up at the right end — 7.63
7.63, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad23 May 2039
57 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings23 May 2039
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.99, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad23 May 2039
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.
The terraces23 May 2039
The crowd has taken to Liam Costa
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Mar 2039
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Liam Costa obliged against Cerrito. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Plaza Colonia.
Squad21 Mar 2039
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.
Squad21 Mar 2039
Thiago Torres breaks a bone — 15 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings21 Mar 2039
Up for the corner, and Mateo Molinari delivers — 7.78
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mateo Molinari scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market21 Mar 2039
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.
Squad21 Mar 2039
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.
Squad21 Mar 2039
Anthony Matheus 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 terraces21 Mar 2039
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Facundo Ramirez 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.
Player ratings21 Mar 2039
Liam Costa runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.