Marked for Facundo Arce
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jul 2042
Francisco Arias damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Squad14 Jul 2042
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match12 Jul 2042
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market14 Jul 2042
“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 The request is on a desk at Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jul 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces14 Jul 2042
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Benicio Torres 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.
Match12 Jul 2042
Colón made Gimnasia y Esgrima work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Jul 2042
7.62, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Gimnasia y Esgrima had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad14 Jul 2042
The manager makes an example of Matías Benítez
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 May 2042
Francisco Arias damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Market12 May 2042
“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 The request is on a desk at Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 May 2042
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Squad12 May 2042
Juan Pablo Pérez 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 ratings12 May 2042
14 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.
Match10 May 2042
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Morón? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market12 May 2042
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nahuel Zapatiel signs something — a contract at Gimnasia y Esgrima or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings12 May 2042
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Apr 2042
Francisco Arias 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.
Squad14 Apr 2042
Uriel Soto Maior 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.
Squad14 Apr 2042
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Player ratings14 Apr 2042
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match12 Apr 2042
A 1‑1 draw with Estudiantes leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market14 Apr 2042
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nahuel Zapatiel signs something — a contract at Gimnasia y Esgrima or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings14 Apr 2042
Successful dribbles: 8. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Apr 2042
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Maximiliano Di María may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Mar 2042
Mateo Godoy has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gimnasia y Esgrima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Mar 2042
A fracture rules José Castro out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia y Esgrima will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 Mar 2042
Valentino Gutiérrez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 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.
Squad24 Mar 2042
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Player ratings24 Mar 2042
21 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.
The terraces24 Mar 2042
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Rodríguez 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.
Match22 Mar 2042
A 2‑0 win over Güemes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Mar 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Mar 2042
A defender's afternoon for Facundo Arce
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Feb 2042
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Deportivo Riestra, and it could have been more.
Squad24 Feb 2042
A fracture rules José Castro out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia y Esgrima will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Feb 2042
Only the photograph left for Mateo Godoy
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Godoy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia y Esgrima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings24 Feb 2042
Age has not caught Mateo Godoy yet — 8.02
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Feb 2042
“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 Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Feb 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Feb 2042
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
The terraces24 Feb 2042
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings24 Feb 2042
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Jan 2042
A fracture rules Facundo Vázquez out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia y Esgrima will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market6 Jan 2042
Liam Blanco hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Jan 2042
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Aug 2041
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market19 Aug 2041
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Aug 2041
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
The terraces19 Aug 2041
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Rodríguez 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.
Squad19 Aug 2041
The manager makes an example of Nahuel Zapatiel
“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.
Player ratings19 Aug 2041
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad19 Aug 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Aug 2041
15 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.
Player ratings19 Aug 2041
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Aug 2041
Age has not caught Diego Zúñiga yet — 7.88
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad5 Aug 2041
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Player ratings5 Aug 2041
A defender's afternoon for Facundo Arce
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad5 Aug 2041
Matías Iglesias 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.
Squad5 Aug 2041
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Carlos Pérez and Gimnasia y Esgrima agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom5 Aug 2041
90% of the income goes out in wages at Gimnasia y Esgrima
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Aug 2041
A place in the month's best eleven for Diego Zúñiga
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Diego Zúñiga has come out of that comparison in the side, and Gimnasia y Esgrima have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings5 Aug 2041
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
Steady
Player ratings8 Jul 2041
Facundo Arce goes up and wins it — 7.85
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Squad8 Jul 2041
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Squad8 Jul 2041
Mateo Godoy 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.
Squad8 Jul 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Jun 2041
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad24 Jun 2041
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gimnasia y Esgrima may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Jun 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jun 2041
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 May 2041
Only the photograph left for Mateo Godoy
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mateo Godoy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia y Esgrima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings20 May 2041
Up for the corner, and Facundo Arce delivers — 7.40
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Facundo Arce scored, was marked 7.40, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad20 May 2041
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Match18 May 2041
Colón left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 May 2041
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Godoy, and the manager let it.
Squad20 May 2041
Emiliano De Luca has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Apr 2041
8 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.
Market22 Apr 2041
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Apr 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Apr 2041
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Arias 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.
Player ratings22 Apr 2041
Defensive actions: 16, 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 ratings22 Apr 2041
The afternoon belonged to Facundo Arce
7.44, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Gimnasia y Esgrima had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad22 Apr 2041
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.
Player ratings22 Apr 2041
Successful dribbles: 13. 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
Uneasy
Market15 Apr 2041
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gimnasia y Esgrima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match13 Apr 2041
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Gimnasia y Esgrima are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Apr 2041
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gimnasia y Esgrima have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Apr 2041
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Squad15 Apr 2041
Facundo Arce 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Mar 2041
Luis Alberto Rossi damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Match2 Mar 2041
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad4 Mar 2041
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Zapatiel 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 terraces4 Mar 2041
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Rodríguez 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.
Squad4 Mar 2041
A place in the month's best eleven for Mateo Godoy
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Mateo Godoy has come out of that comparison in the side, and Gimnasia y Esgrima have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings4 Mar 2041
15 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.
Squad4 Mar 2041
Valentino Ortiz 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.
Player ratings4 Mar 2041
14 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.
Match2 Mar 2041
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Colegiales defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Feb 2041
Luis Alberto Rossi damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Market18 Feb 2041
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings18 Feb 2041
Uriel Soto Maior, 34, rolls back the years — 7.82
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match16 Feb 2041
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad18 Feb 2041
Nahuel Zapatiel 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.
Squad18 Feb 2041
Francisco Arias 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.
Match16 Feb 2041
A 1‑0 win over Estudiantes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings18 Feb 2041
Successful dribbles: 16. 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
Crisis
Squad11 Feb 2041
Luis Alberto Rossi damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Boardroom11 Feb 2041
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Player ratings11 Feb 2041
Facundo Arce goes up and wins it — 7.87
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.87 for the rest of it.
Squad11 Feb 2041
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2041
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Arias 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.
Match9 Feb 2041
Defensores left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.