The mood at Temperley 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Benjamín Iriart provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Temperley can pretend not to have heard.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Temperley and Estudiantes in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Temperley lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Temperley, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Temperley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aldosivi have kept their man, and Temperley go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Temperley lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Temperley, and it is not being withdrawn.
Benjamín Iriart 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Temperley, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Julián Lombardi’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Position 17 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Temperley have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Temperley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Temperley asked and Sarmiento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.