The Nacional Sentinel
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luis Mejía
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Bruno Arady at 19 — 7.90
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bruno Arady did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match5 Sep 2026
Nacional make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Nacional have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Juan Cruz de los Santos
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nicolás Rodríguez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Juan Cruz de los Santos
At 23 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Nacional get the job done against Boston River
A 1‑0 win over Boston River, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolás Lodeiro
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nacional lose Alexis Cuadro
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
In brief
- Market The Juan Cruz de los Santos story refuses to die
- Player ratings The referee tires of Bruno Zuculini
- Market Nacional put Santiago Vargas up for sale