Marked for Luis Peralta
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad2 Aug 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduardo Aguirre
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Aug 2038
Tuerto keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Estudiantes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings2 Aug 2038
Tobías Ostchega, 39, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market2 Aug 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Aug 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tobías Ostchega and Estudiantes agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match31 Jul 2038
Nobody wants to play Estudiantes 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.
Squad2 Aug 2038
Bill 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2038
Estudiantes release $338.6K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
In brief
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Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Leonel Herrera
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Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Miguel Perez
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Player ratings
Bill runs at them all day
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Eduardo Aguirre
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bill 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 terraces26 Jul 2038
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luis Peralta 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 ratings26 Jul 2038
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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2038
Marked 7.97 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Estudiantes had the best player on the pitch.
Boardroom26 Jul 2038
98% of the income goes out in wages at Estudiantes
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.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Matías Valenti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Estudiantes 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
Steady
Player ratings5 Jul 2038
Francisco Suárez, 35, rolls back the years — 8.49
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market5 Jul 2038
“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 Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jul 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Jul 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matías Valenti commits to Estudiantes for another 2 years.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bill 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 Jul 2038
It finished 1‑0, and it was Francisco Suárez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Estudiantes.
Player ratings5 Jul 2038
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Jul 2038
18 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
$338.6K on the table at Estudiantes
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jun 2038
No end in sight to Estudiantes's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Estudiantes has to find a result from somewhere.
Market21 Jun 2038
“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.
Player ratings21 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Jun 2038
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bill 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.
Match19 Jun 2038
0‑1 to Gimnasia y Tiro, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 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 Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Noah Lucero commits to Estudiantes for another 3 years.
Squad21 Jun 2038
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Luis Alberto Rodríguez knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Player ratings21 Jun 2038
Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2038
Claudio Lopez damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Market7 Jun 2038
“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 Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Jun 2038
No end in sight to Estudiantes's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Estudiantes has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings7 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bill 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.
Boardroom7 Jun 2038
$338.6K on the table at Estudiantes
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Tobías Ostchega has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Estudiantes 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.
Squad7 Jun 2038
A place in the month's best eleven for Leonardo Sosa
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Leonardo Sosa has come out of that comparison in the side, and Estudiantes have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market7 Jun 2038
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Luis Peralta has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Estudiantes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tobías Ostchega
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Mar 2038
“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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Bill in the eights
A performance of 8.81 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Francisco Suárez 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 ratings22 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 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.
Match20 Mar 2038
It needed Bill to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Chaco For Ever, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad22 Mar 2038
“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.
Market22 Mar 2038
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Estudiantes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Mar 2037
Nicolás Garnica damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Nicolás Valdemarín 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.
Match28 Mar 2037
3 matches without a goal for Estudiantes
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match28 Mar 2037
0‑1 to San Martín SJ, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Mar 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 Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Mar 2037
“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 ratings30 Mar 2037
An afternoon Leonardo Sosa will want back
Marked 5.53. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
A mark of 5.70 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.