Marked for Thiago Rivera
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match11 Aug 2036
Nobody above Colon
First, on 34 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Squad11 Aug 2036
A falling-out at Colon
Leandro Méndez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Quispe 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 dugout11 Aug 2036
The manager makes an example of Santiago Ochoa
“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.
The dugout11 Aug 2036
Nicolás Quispe knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout11 Aug 2036
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Cristian Torres has written the date down.
Market11 Aug 2036
7 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Colon money.
Market11 Aug 2036
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Martin Godoy leaves Colon the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Market11 Aug 2036
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Thiago Rivera leaves Colon the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Nov 2035
14 days out for Ionas González after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colon will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Nov 2035
A falling-out at Colon
Gonzalo Flores and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Santiago Marcel 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
Upbeat
Squad9 Apr 2035
The knee: Diego Rojas out for 43 days
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Apr 2035
6‑0, and Tiziano Godoy took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Colon tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad9 Apr 2035
A fracture rules Thiago Rivera out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.02, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Santiago Marcel, 33, rolls back the years — 7.90
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match7 Apr 2035
Colon make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colon have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad9 Apr 2035
A falling-out at Colon
Leandro Méndez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Apr 2035
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Colon and Platense in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Leandro Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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
Steady
Squad2 Apr 2035
The knee: Diego Rojas out for 50 days
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Thiago Rivera breaks a bone — 25 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Words exchanged at Colon
Leandro Méndez 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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
A row about effort at Colon
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Olivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Apr 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch2 Apr 2035
“I watch every Colon game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Potencia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Santiago Marcel's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel González, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
Nicolás Quispe knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2035
The knee: Diego Rojas out for 57 days
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match24 Mar 2035
No mercy from Colon
Mar de Fondo will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colon were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad26 Mar 2035
A fracture rules Thiago Rivera out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colon will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Age has not caught Gonzalo Flores yet — 8.29
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market26 Mar 2035
Matic Elsnik 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 Colon can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
A goal and an assist for Lautaro Gerez — 7.86
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.86 beside his name.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Tempers go at Colon
Leandro Méndez 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 dugout26 Mar 2035
Agustín Olavarría is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 4‑0, already talking about the next one.