Marked for Benjamín Herrera
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Jun 2029
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.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.80, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad2 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
Ninety minutes of Valentín Quevedo at his very best
Marked 8.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Colegiales.
Market2 Jul 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Colegiales, another week without a signature from Fernando Miranda.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Colegiales sign 3 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Franco Hanashiro
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Franco Hanashiro has come out of that comparison in the side, and Colegiales have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Leonardo Rodríguez, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
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
Crisis
Match7 Apr 2029
No end in sight to Colegiales's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Colegiales has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Up for the corner, and Federico Marín delivers — 7.96
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Federico Marín scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Máximo Suazo 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.
Match7 Apr 2029
1‑2 to Atlanta, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match7 Apr 2029
Colegiales hit back inside 1 minutes
Atlanta held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Colegiales answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Feb 2029
Los Andes left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
Máximo Suazo 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 dugout12 Feb 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Rodríguez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Colegiales will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
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 Emilio Di Fulvio is on it.
Market12 Feb 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Franco Zicarelli has agreed terms with San Lorenzo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Fernando Miranda 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Valentín Quevedo 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Aug 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.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamín Herrera and Colegiales agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2028
0‑3 to All Boys, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market14 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Carlos Barba
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Barba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 Aug 2028
No end in sight to Colegiales's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Colegiales has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Aug 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 Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Aug 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ricardo Muñoz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Aug 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Benjamín Herrera is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Aug 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pedro Vega has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Zicarelli 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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.