Marked for Lucas Suárez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ramiro Quintana
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 May 2028
Colon out of the cup
Cerro ended it 1‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces8 May 2028
A cup embarrassment at Cerro follows Colon home
1-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market8 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín de Armas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colon the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match6 May 2028
No end in sight to Colon's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Colon has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 May 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 Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 May 2028
This is not rotation. Faustino Choca has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Colon is pretending otherwise.
Squad8 May 2028
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.
Player ratings8 May 2028
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.13, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ramiro Quintana
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colon lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Colon's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Colon has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín de Armas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colon the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 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 Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Agustín Chopitea 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Colon rescue it on 89 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Terremoto had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout13 Mar 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Terremoto leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
64 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colon is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Nov 2027
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Emiliano Vidart 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.
Loan watch22 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Bella Italia to sit and watch. I want to come back to Colon and fight for my place.” 15 appearances in 49 matches say the rest.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
No hiding place for Bryan Paz
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bryan Paz, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Agustín de Armas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Colon 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ronald Álvarez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2027
99 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colon have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market21 Jun 2027
Lucas Suárez 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Martín González: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Colon have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market21 Jun 2027
Martín Coirolo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colon they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Agustín Chopitea 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Colon
Agustín Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Lisandro González has come up in conversations Colon were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
-
Loan watch
Leison Cuero counts the days
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Lucas Suárez
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings3 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match1 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nahuel Marzochi. 3‑2 against Cerro Largo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Colon training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Chopitea 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Colon
Agustín Rodríguez 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 terraces3 May 2027
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.
Squad3 May 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Diego Núñez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Diego Núñez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Colon have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout3 May 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Santiago Fernandez on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout3 May 2027
Lucas Suárez gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Agustín Chopitea has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Mar 2027
The small margins put Colon out
Out, 1‑2 to Huracan del Paso, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Colon
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Méndez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Colon
Agustín Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leandro Méndez. 1‑0 against La Luz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
10 combined actions and 6.92. 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.
Match17 Mar 2027
The goal that put Huracan del Paso ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Colon equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 7.81. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I watch every Colon game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Oriental runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.