Marked for Joaquín Vidal
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Dec 2032
Julio López breaks a bone — 38 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Dec 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Almirante Brown, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets13 Dec 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brown de Adrogué have kept their man, and Almirante Brown go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Julio López 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.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liam Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Dec 2032
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Almirante Brown are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout13 Dec 2032
Jorge Morinigo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Morinigo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout13 Dec 2032
Nicolás Femia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Almirante Brown 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.
Market13 Dec 2032
The Bruno Miño story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Miño signs something — a contract at Almirante Brown or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Oct 2032
“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.
Match2 Oct 2032
Nobody wants to play Almirante Brown 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.
Boardroom4 Oct 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad4 Oct 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almirante Brown this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Oct 2032
Colón made Almirante Brown work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad4 Oct 2032
Liam Torres 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 ratings4 Oct 2032
Marked 7.80 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Almirante Brown had the best player on the pitch.
Squad4 Oct 2032
Joaquín Vidal named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Joaquín Vidal is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.96, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Jorge Morinigo 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.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Miño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match18 Sep 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramón González. 3‑1 against Estudiantes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad20 Sep 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Almirante Brown can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
7.97, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Almirante Brown had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Facundo Navarro could afford to be generous.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
Jorge Morinigo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Almirante Brown 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
“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
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match14 Aug 2032
Beaten 0‑4 by Brown de Adrogué, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market16 Aug 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almirante Brown can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Jorge Morinigo 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Bruno Miño 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Boardroom16 Aug 2032
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.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Facundo Navarro to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás Femia, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Almirante Brown have done the hard part with Deportivo Riestra, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Juan Múgica 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.
The terraces28 Jun 2032
The crowd has taken to Liam Torres
At 18 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.
Match26 Jun 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Miño. 1‑0 against Gimnasia y Esgrima, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liam Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Jun 2032
Marked 7.87. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Market28 Jun 2032
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicolás Femia has his answer from Almirante Brown; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout28 Jun 2032
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Facundo Navarro kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Jun 2032
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
Upbeat
Player ratings31 May 2032
Santiago Palacio, 34, rolls back the years — 7.83
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad31 May 2032
Juan Múgica 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.
Match29 May 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Miño. 1‑0 against Colón, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 May 2032
Words at Almirante Brown training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Liam Torres 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 ratings31 May 2032
Nobody could get near Bruno Miño
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout31 May 2032
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Facundo Navarro could afford to be generous.
The dugout31 May 2032
Nobody at Almirante Brown 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.
The dugout31 May 2032
Jorge Morinigo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Morinigo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings31 May 2032
A mark of 4.66 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Dec 2031
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almirante Brown lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market22 Dec 2031
“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 Almirante Brown, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Gastón Moreyra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom22 Dec 2031
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Liam Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Quignón, and the manager let it.
Market22 Dec 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Almirante Brown, another week without a signature from Juan Múgica.
Transfer targets22 Dec 2031
A loan move for Alexis Viera is in the works
Almirante Brown have made the call to Vélez. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad22 Dec 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joaquín Vidal and Almirante Brown agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.