Marked for Alex Silva
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
Octavio Perdomo gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Octavio Perdomo has just signed for Fenix, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Barboza 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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market14 Aug 2028
Fenix and Diego Rosa are talking past each other
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Axel Pérez runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Jul 2028
13 unbeaten for Fenix
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Fenix did not have in the autumn.
Match29 Jul 2028
Nobody wins at Fenix
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market31 Jul 2028
The deal that would have taken Juan Manuel Nieto to Artigas has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Fenix with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad31 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Jul 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Valentín Luciani’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fenix.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Alex Silva 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 ratings31 Jul 2028
Sebastián de Marco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Sebastián de Marco
5 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Jul 2028
Fenix are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 44 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match22 Jul 2028
Whatever happens, Fenix do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market24 Jul 2028
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Valentín Luciani reports back to Fenix with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fenix is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Facundo Bacci has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Andrés Barboza 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 ratings24 Jul 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.26 on the card, and the Fenix support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match8 Jul 2028
Whatever happens, Fenix do not lose
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market10 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fenix can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Manuel Nieto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fenix the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Match8 Jul 2028
The run at home goes on for Fenix
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Silva 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 ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jun 2028
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.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lautaro Gerez has agreed terms with Colon for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Match17 Jun 2028
Whatever happens, Fenix do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market19 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Lautaro Gerez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lautaro Gerez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fenix the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Alex Silva 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 ratings19 Jun 2028
7.88, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Fenix had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match17 Jun 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 41. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 May 2028
A fracture rules Esteban González out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fenix will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match29 May 2028
Fenix refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 30 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.
Market29 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fenix they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 May 2028
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Squad29 May 2028
“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.
Match27 May 2028
Tacuarembo made Fenix work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Silva 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 ratings29 May 2028
The afternoon belonged to Axel Pérez
A mark of 7.42, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 53. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 May 2028
A fracture rules Esteban González out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fenix will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bryan Olivera and Fenix agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Age has not caught Bryan Olivera yet — 7.89
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Bryan Olivera’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fenix.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Silva 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 141 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Alex Silva 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 ratings27 Mar 2028
7.61, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Fenix had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Santiago Rodríguez: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match8 Dec 2027
The cup run ends for Fenix
0‑0 against Liverpool Montevideo, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A season's verdict on Iván Román: the best of his age
Fenix have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
Match8 Dec 2027
Nobody wins at Fenix
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad13 Dec 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Fenix have had the benefit of it.
Market13 Dec 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Sebastián Tormo is a Fenix player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad13 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Dec 2027
3 matches without a goal for Fenix
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Oct 2027
Nicolás Prieto has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fenix they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Silva 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Alex Silva 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
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
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Silva 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Esteban González, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Aug 2027
Fenix up to position 3
48 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A move Mauricio Chanampa would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mauricio Chanampa is living that version at Fenix, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
At 20 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Alex Silva 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
7 new faces, and Fenix 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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
The afternoon belonged to Ian Subiabre
7.30, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Fenix had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match7 Aug 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Uruguay Montevideo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Fenix
The unbeaten run reaches 15. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Axel Pérez runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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.
Match17 Jul 2027
The run at home goes on for Fenix
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market19 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Nicolás Prieto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Prieto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fenix the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Match17 Jul 2027
Rentistas made Fenix work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Silva 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 ratings19 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of Agustín Dávila at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Fenix.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Jun 2027
Fenix win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. La Luz will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Match26 Jun 2027
Still nobody has beaten Fenix
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Jun 2027
The run at home goes on for Fenix
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad28 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A move Lautaro Gerez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lautaro Gerez is living that version at Fenix, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match26 Jun 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Axel Pérez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Fenix.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Alex Silva 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 ratings28 Jun 2027
One of those days for Axel Pérez
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lucas Rossi
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fenix lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Jun 2027
Whatever happens, Fenix do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The Fenix board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Fenix
Bryan Olivera 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Fenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Silva 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 May 2027
Fenix refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 25 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 ratings17 May 2027
Nobody could get near Axel Pérez
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces17 May 2027
The crowd has taken to Iván Román
At 20 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.
Match15 May 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Fenix. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match15 May 2027
Fenix get the job done against Cerrito
A 1‑0 win over Cerrito, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Fenix.
Squad17 May 2027
Alex Silva 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.
Squad17 May 2027
“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.
Squad17 May 2027
Alan Álvarez 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 Fenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.