2‑0 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Boca Juniors are entitled to ignore.
“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 The request is on a desk at Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
Boca Juniors have gone to Racing Club 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer went to San Martín SJ this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Silvera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ñublense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Jaime Vargas has come up in conversations Ñublense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Ñublense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Maioli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ñublense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ñublense asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer went to Vitoria Guimaraes this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Lorenzo have kept their man, and Boca Juniors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Portuguesa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boca Juniors offered $870.0K; Racing Club said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boca Juniors offered $7.2M; Godoy Cruz said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcos López has just signed for Boca Juniors, and for once the answer mattered.
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 1‑1 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Gonzalo Siri: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matías Budiño 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Huracán training over how hard people work
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 May 2030
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
Argentinos Juniors 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lucas Ortíz has his answer from Huracán; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Position 2, 20 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huracán can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
A brace, and Juan Bisanz takes the afternoon — 7.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Bisanz provided it, and the 7.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Peña Biafore will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
1 for Facundo González, marked 7.53, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Guillermo Enrique 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Huracán and Temperley, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tiziano Dornell provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Matías Budiño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alejandro Iglesias on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
6 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Bisanz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
38 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Matías Budiño 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.
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.
“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 Mar 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Alejandro Iglesias chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mirko Bonfigli has his answer from Huracán; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Huracán prefer.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rodrigo González has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
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.” Alejandro Iglesias kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Something was said to Tomás Castro Ponce and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Budiño trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Peña Biafore will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Guillermo Enrique 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Guillermo Enrique trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Huracán 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.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Huracán could ask drops and the wages Juan Bisanz can ask rise.
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 Alan López has written the date down.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Huracán lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Castro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Guillermo Enrique 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Huracán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcos López signs something — a contract at Huracán or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutMartín Soto has become a man the manager trusts
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Huracán lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Huracán have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Castro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Guillermo Enrique 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Ivo Visona 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.
Marked 7.61. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Marcelo Pérez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marcelo Pérez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Huracán have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Franco Alonso on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Huracán has been clear about where Gonzalo Siri stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Huracán 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.
“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 Huracán, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huracán, another week without a signature from Matías Budiño.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Huracán prefer.
It needed Marcelo Pérez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Tristán Suárez, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
6 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Huracán can tell you which week it ends in.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Gil, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Franco Alonso to a room that had heard them before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huracán can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Central Córdoba SdE for Lautaro Mora was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Morón have kept their man, and Huracán go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $140.0K — a club that wants Maximiliano Alanís enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Huracán have done the hard part with Lanús, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Juventus is saying, and nobody at Huracán is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$210.0K on the table at River Plate. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
2‑1 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
“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 Huracán, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Mitre; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Martín Soto, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 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.
Huracán have gone to River Plate 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.
Huracán have gone to Ferro Carril Oeste 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.
The name of Tobías Donsanti has come up in conversations Huracán were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huracán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Matías Budiño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Huracán could ask drops and the wages Matías Budiño can ask rise.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huracán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Castro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Figueredo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Leandro Figueredo has his answer from Huracán; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout21 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Franco Alonso left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huracán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Figueredo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Huracán has been clear about where Juan Bisanz stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Huracán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Huracán know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Huracán 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huracán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huracán can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
Rodrigo González 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.
Three points for Huracán, 2‑0 the final word against Argentinos Juniors in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Ousmane Camara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Franco Alonso could afford to be generous.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huracán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A 2‑0 win over Deportivo Laferrere, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
0‑3 against River Plate, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Figueredo 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.
In brief
Player ratingsMirko Bonfigli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 7.99 for the rest of it.
Matías Budiño 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 Apr 2029
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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 ratings16 Apr 2029
Marcelo Pérez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.42. 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.
Marked 8.62 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Marcelo Pérez in the middle of it, and Gimnasia y Tiro unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huracán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for Huracán, 1‑0 the final word against Nueva Chicago in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Óscar Cortés was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huracán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Something was said to Juan Bisanz and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Huracán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 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 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.
Matías Budiño 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Franco Alonso to a room that had heard them before.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Huracán told Tomás Castro Ponce something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Matías Budiño 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Franco Alonso after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huracán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Guillermo Enrique 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.
Banfield left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Figueredo 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Leandro Lescano has his answer from Huracán; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad12 Mar 2029
11 new faces, and Huracán are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huracán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑3 against Gimnasia La Plata, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillermo Enrique was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Gimnasia La Plata; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sebastián Ramírez has his answer from Huracán; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huracán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Huracán have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huracán can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 combined actions and 6.89. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huracán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillermo Enrique was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Rosario Central, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Franco Alonso, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.