Marked for Camilo Cabrera
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match25 Aug 2036
Plaza Colonia refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 48 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market25 Aug 2036
“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.
Squad25 Aug 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plaza Colonia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
This is not rotation. Camilo Cabrera has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending otherwise.
Market25 Aug 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Plaza Colonia, another week without a signature from Ignacio Suárez.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Brítez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Aug 2036
The manager makes an example of Camilo Cabrera
“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 dugout25 Aug 2036
Fernando Garcia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Plaza Colonia 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.
Market25 Aug 2036
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Plaza Colonia money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Jul 2036
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Plaza Colonia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match28 Jul 2036
Plaza Colonia refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 46 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings28 Jul 2036
Age has not caught Gerardo Padrón yet — 8.24
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Jul 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plaza Colonia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Jul 2036
This is not rotation. Camilo Cabrera has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Plaza Colonia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings28 Jul 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Camilo Cabrera 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.
Match26 Jul 2036
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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The dugout
Fernando Garcia has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Camilo Cabrera gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jul 2036
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Platense had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market14 Jul 2036
“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 Plaza Colonia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Ignacio Suárez 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.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rentistas have kept their man, and Plaza Colonia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market14 Jul 2036
Mateo Gastaldi is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Plaza Colonia has been clear about where Mateo Gastaldi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match12 Jul 2036
A 1‑0 win over Paysandu FC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Defences have started doubling up on José Recalde
8 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings14 Jul 2036
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.67 on the card, and the Plaza Colonia support went home talking about one name.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2036
A loan enquiry to Nacional: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Ramon Castro
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jul 2036
“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.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2036
The clubs have shaken hands with Nacional; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market7 Jul 2036
Only the photograph left for José Recalde
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Recalde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Plaza Colonia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout7 Jul 2036
“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.
Squad7 Jul 2036
Ignacio Suárez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2036
Wanderers wanted more than $170.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2036
Plaza Colonia asked and Progreso said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match5 Jul 2036
1‑2 to Cerro Largo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market7 Jul 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Plaza Colonia, another week without a signature from Ignacio Suárez.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Jun 2036
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market30 Jun 2036
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Plaza Colonia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market30 Jun 2036
“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.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2036
The deal with Cerro is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2036
Plaza Colonia have gone to Wanderers with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad30 Jun 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Plaza Colonia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Jun 2036
This is not rotation. Camilo Cabrera has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Montevideo City Torque have kept their man, and Plaza Colonia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Looking ahead30 Jun 2036
Top-of-the-table clash for Plaza Colonia
Cerro Largo next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 May 2036
Owen Pereira 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.
Match17 May 2036
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Recalde. 1‑0 against Villa Teresa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 May 2036
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match19 May 2036
Position 3, 26 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad19 May 2036
Words at Plaza Colonia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Jimenez 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 dugout19 May 2036
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
The dugout19 May 2036
Fernando Garcia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Plaza Colonia 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 dugout19 May 2036
“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.
Squad19 May 2036
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Plaza Colonia will feel it on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Mar 2036
7 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.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Plaza Colonia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market3 Mar 2036
“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.
Market3 Mar 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Owen Pereira 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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad3 Mar 2036
A place in the month's best eleven for Camilo Cabrera
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Camilo Cabrera has come out of that comparison in the side, and Plaza Colonia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match1 Mar 2036
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Oct 2035
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Plaza Colonia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom29 Oct 2035
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Plaza Colonia is running low.
Market29 Oct 2035
“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 Plaza Colonia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“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.
Market29 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Plaza Colonia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Gerardo Padrón 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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad29 Oct 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Camilo Cabrera and Plaza Colonia agree another 3 years.
Loan watch29 Oct 2035
“I watch every Plaza Colonia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Platense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.