The Nacional Sentinel
Squad5 Mar 2029
Sebastián Vargas damages knee ligaments — 116 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 116 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
14 days out for Adrian Martinez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nacional will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
A defender's goal wins it for Nacional — 7.43
1 for Junior Barreto, marked 7.43, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Nacional
Junior Barreto 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
Mateo Pérez Curci has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nacional can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match3 Mar 2029
Junior Barreto’s goal not enough for Nacional
Junior Barreto scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Cerro Porteno, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Fredy Vera 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
Talks stall between Nacional and Juan Feliú
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Nacional
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
- The dugout Fernando Martinez answers for it
- The dugout Juan Feliú has become a man the manager trusts
- The dugout Juan Feliú asks for a word with the manager