Marked for Alan Benítez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Matías Rojas takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matías Rojas provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match6 Mar 2027
Libertad cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lorenzo Melgarejo and Libertad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 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 Libertad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Mar 2027
Libertad are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Jorge Recalde 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Alan Benítez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alan Benítez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Libertad have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The numbers do not look good at Libertad
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Alan Benítez, 33, rolls back the years — 7.98
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Alexis Duarte 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Libertad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Espinoza 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
General Diaz made Libertad work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.34, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I did not go to River Plate to sit and watch. I want to come back to Libertad and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Dec 2026
The bid was some way short and Libertad did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Alexis Duarte 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Libertad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Melgarejo 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Libertad have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market7 Dec 2026
Cerro Porteno are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Libertad will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Libertad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market30 Nov 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alan Benítez wants continental football; whether Libertad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jorge Recalde 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Lucas Torres out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Libertad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alexis Duarte 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Libertad training over how hard people work
-
Squad
When it matters, Amín Molinas plays
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alexis Duarte 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alan Benítez keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Alan Benítez plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gustavo Aguilar and Libertad agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alexis Duarte 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.