Marked for Facundo Suarez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Sep 2038
Santino Quinteros damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Squad6 Sep 2038
A fracture rules Sebastian Araujo out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Juventud will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad6 Sep 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 Juventud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings6 Sep 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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2038
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings6 Sep 2038
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings6 Sep 2038
A performance of 9.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Lautaro Codina
7 goals and a season average of 7.34 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Santino Quinteros
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Jul 2038
A one-man rearguard from Lucas Quimbo
There were 9 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.
Market19 Jul 2038
Juventud say no — this time
The offer from Danubio for Lucas Quimbo 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.
Squad19 Jul 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 Juventud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Jul 2038
Fenix made Juventud work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
A performance of 8.95 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
Lautaro Codina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.95. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Santino Quinteros
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Juan Gonzalez breaks a bone — 67 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match10 Jul 2038
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Juventud scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market12 Jul 2038
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.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Mateo Izaguirre 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.
Match10 Jul 2038
Juventud make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match10 Jul 2038
Cerrito made Juventud work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings12 Jul 2038
Marked 9.14 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings12 Jul 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.99, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2038
Santino Quinteros damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Juan Gonzalez breaks a bone — 82 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Jun 2038
Facundo Suarez had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Montevideo City Torque were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Ignacio Caceres, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match26 Jun 2038
5 matches without a win for Juventud
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Juventud are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Jun 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 Juventud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at Juventud training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Morosini 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.
Market28 Jun 2038
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Juventud will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
In brief
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Match
The run at home goes on for Juventud
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Player ratings
Lautaro Codina was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Facundo Suarez at his very best
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rafael Mendez
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 May 2038
Martín Bertola: 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.” Juventud have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match1 May 2038
Still nobody has beaten Juventud
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad3 May 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 Juventud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2038
Words at Juventud training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Morosini 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 terraces3 May 2038
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Facundo Suarez 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 ratings3 May 2038
A performance of 8.83 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match1 May 2038
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings3 May 2038
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rafael Mendez
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
Age has not caught Facundo Báez yet — 8.65
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.65 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match17 Apr 2038
Nobody wants to play Juventud 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.
Squad19 Apr 2038
David Morosini 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 ratings19 Apr 2038
Ninety minutes of Fabricio Roldán at his very best
Marked 9.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Juventud.
Match17 Apr 2038
Penarol made Juventud work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad19 Apr 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.
Squad19 Apr 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Martín Maldonado, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
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
Squad12 Apr 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rafael Mendez
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings12 Apr 2038
Facundo Báez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.79
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.79 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad12 Apr 2038
A one-man rearguard from Lucas Quimbo
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.
Market12 Apr 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventud is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2038
Rodrigo Chagas 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.
Squad12 Apr 2038
David Morosini 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.
Match10 Apr 2038
Still nobody has beaten Juventud
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings12 Apr 2038
Francisco Sorondo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.08. 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.
Match10 Apr 2038
It finished 2‑1, and it was Francisco Sorondo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Juventud.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2038
124 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market5 Apr 2038
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodrigo Chagas and Juventud agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Apr 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 Juventud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Words at Juventud training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Morosini 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.
Match3 Apr 2038
A 2‑0 win over Fenix, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.78, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Mar 2038
Cup progress for Juventud
A 2‑1 win over Oriental, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Alejandro Rossi could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 8.52
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 8.52, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Ignacio Caceres, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.84
A mark of 8.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Facundo Báez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.52
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.52 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad22 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 Juventud this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Juventud training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Morosini 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Facundo Suarez and Juventud agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The terraces22 Mar 2038
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ignacio Caceres 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Manuel Jimenez
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Facundo Suarez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Facundo Suarez has just signed for Juventud, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Words at Juventud training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Morosini 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.
Boardroom11 Jan 2038
Cerro will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Lucca Caula has pre-agreed a move to Juventud, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market11 Jan 2038
The name of Mateo Izaguirre keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Juventud say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Dec 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Dec 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Dec 2036
A move Agustin Gimenez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Agustin Gimenez is living that version at Colon, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom22 Dec 2036
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad22 Dec 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Alvarez and Colon agree another 3 years.
Market22 Dec 2036
The name of Gonzalo Ramirez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Colon say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Nov 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 130 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Nov 2036
Only the photograph left for Facundo Suarez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Suarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colon the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Nov 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Oct 2036
Yonatan Brun breaks a bone — 73 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Daniel Susluaga damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Market20 Oct 2036
Only the photograph left for Facundo Suarez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Suarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colon the goodbyes have quietly begun.