Marked for Daniel Castillo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Jul 2038
Pressure builds in the Portuguesa boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Lautaro Lovazzano 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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market26 Jul 2038
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Portuguesa will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
Sergio Colombo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Words at Portuguesa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Mendoza 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.
Squad26 Jul 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lebogang Mswane, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Mar 2038
The mood at Portuguesa 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portuguesa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Words at Portuguesa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Lovazzano 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.
Match13 Mar 2038
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Wilfredo Peña dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad15 Mar 2038
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.
Market15 Mar 2038
The name of Wilfredo Peña keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Portuguesa say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
5.75. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Jul 2037
Jonathan Bilbao damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Boardroom27 Jul 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Portuguesa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
34 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market27 Jul 2037
Sergio Murillo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Portuguesa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Jul 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portuguesa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Jul 2037
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Words at Portuguesa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Lovazzano 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.
Market27 Jul 2037
The Andres Garcia conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Zulia will make the call about Andres Garcia this week. Portuguesa have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad27 Jul 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Castillo commits to Portuguesa for another 2 years.