The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vicente Martínez did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
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.
At 21 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.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
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.
This is not rotation. Jonás Zerda has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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 mood at 12 de Junio has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Derlis Alegre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at 12 de Junio, another week without a signature from Derlis Alegre.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ignacio Valenzuela 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Enzo Maidana has his answer from 12 de Junio; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is not rotation. Rodrigo Cacho Sousa has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reinaldo Benítez 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
Match7 Mar 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about 12 de Junio and Libertad in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Derlis Alegre 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.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Oscar Cabrera 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 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. 12 de Junio will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
This is not rotation. Rodrigo Cacho Sousa has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Nobody arrives at 12 de Junio until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with 12 de Junio this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The mood at 12 de Junio has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Oscar Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Marcos Urán 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and 12 de Junio will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Reinaldo Benítez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Guarani keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guarani have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reinaldo Benítez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. 12 de Junio will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. 12 de Junio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cerro Porteno keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan Vargas has just signed for 12 de Junio, and for once the answer mattered.
12 de Junio asked and Sol de America said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reinaldo Benítez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. 12 de Junio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around 12 de Junio people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A season's verdict on Luis Núñez: the best of his age
12 de Junio 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.
12 de Junio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at River Plate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Oscar Cabrera 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 Dec 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
12 de Junio asked and Olimpia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Oscar Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio 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 Derlis Alegre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Sánchez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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. Santiago Aquino has moved up it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at 12 de Junio is running low.
Position 14 and 28 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Estigarribia 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Braian Tolaba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oscar Cabrera 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 Oct 2028
Derlis Alegre 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
10 new faces, and 12 de Junio 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 12 de Junio, 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 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcos Urán and 12 de Junio agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. 12 de Junio told José Estigarribia something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 14 and 28 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7 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.
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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at 12 de Junio
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
This is not rotation. Joan Chávez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Alegre 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
BoardroomWages swallow 198% of the 12 de Junio income
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Oscar Cabrera 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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
He is 20, and nobody at 12 de Junio signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Rubio Nu the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that 12 de Junio will enjoy reviewing.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Luis Núñez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.29
A mark of 8.29 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.
1 for Reinaldo Benítez, marked 7.64, 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Diego Aranda reports back to 12 de Junio with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Rodrigo Argüello 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.
In brief
SquadWords at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Pastoreo for Celso Duarte 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sportivo Trinidense have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fernando Bracho. 1‑0 against Fernando de la Mora, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reinaldo Benítez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at 12 de Junio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. 12 de Junio have done the hard part with River Plate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
12 de Junio asked and Resistencia 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 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.
Position 14 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Everything agreed with River Plate, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sportivo Trinidense have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oscar Cabrera has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reinaldo Benítez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. 12 de Junio have done the hard part with Guarani, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Carlos Kiese 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 easiest signature of my career.” Reinaldo Benítez and 12 de Junio agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
Boardroom135% of the income goes out in wages at 12 de Junio
Rodrigo Argüello 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Oscar Cabrera has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Luis Núñez is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. 12 de Junio will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Reinaldo Benítez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” 12 de Junio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Cubas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Diego Cubas on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Aranda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around 12 de Junio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.93, 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Diego Aranda 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.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
A 2‑1 win over Guarani de Fram, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Luis Núñez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodrigo Argüello and 12 de Junio agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
6 goals in one match, Juan Cáceres on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of 12 de Junio and Tacuary.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 12 de Junio, 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 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at 12 de Junio is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Reinaldo Benítez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Uriel Ojeda 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation 12 de Junio are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee 12 de Junio could ask drops and the wages Diego Aranda can ask rise.
A new face in his position, and Carlos Kiese suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. 12 de Junio have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
12 de Junio spent the window trying to move Carlos Kiese on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Enzo Maidana a promise
The mood at 12 de Junio has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Reinaldo Benítez 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 offer went to Libertad 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. 12 de Junio will try again when the window opens; Pastoreo may not be selling by then.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at 12 de Junio is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to 2 de Mayo 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.
12 de Junio have gone to Libertad 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.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
$14.0K was the most the club would pay and Libertad were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Martín Pomes is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sol de America keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Libertad 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.
12 de Junio offered $160.0K; Libertad 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 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 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Libertad is saying, and nobody at 12 de Junio is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to 2 de Mayo 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.
The offer went to Libertad 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Everything agreed with River Plate, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at 12 de Junio, another week without a signature from Diego Aranda.
12 de Junio have made the call to Libertad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at 12 de Junio
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Martín Pomes is on it.
Position 16 and 21 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcos Urán, and the manager let it.
Boardroom22 Nov 2027
106% of the income goes out in wages at 12 de Junio
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, 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. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 12 de Junio, 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 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 12 de Junio, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Reinaldo Benítez and 12 de Junio agree another 2 years.
Reinaldo Benítez 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 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at 12 de Junio, another week without a signature from Leandro Gaglianone.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Celso Duarte trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Mauro Bogado
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at 12 de Junio is running low.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
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.
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. Celso Duarte has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutCelso Duarte knocks on the manager's door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Reinaldo Benítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Martín Pomes 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.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
102% of the income goes out in wages at 12 de Junio
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
In brief
Squad12 de Junio are still strangers to each other
The dugoutMarcos Urán asks for a word with the manager
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio 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.” 12 de Junio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Reinaldo Benítez 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 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.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Bracho 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. 12 de Junio will try not to make too much of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 12 de Junio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at 12 de Junio 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Juan Sánchez.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
100% of the income goes out in wages at 12 de Junio
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 12 de Junio can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Mauro Bogado takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mauro Bogado provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Mauro Bogado’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to 12 de Junio.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Bracho 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
12 de Junio offered $300.0K; Sol de America 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leandro Gaglianone is living that version at 12 de Junio, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Reinaldo Benítez 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: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at 12 de Junio pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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 Diego Cubas to a room that had heard them before.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Martín Pomes 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.
In brief
The dugoutMarcos Urán knocks on the manager’s door
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joan Chávez has just signed for 12 de Junio, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
He is 22 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at 12 de Junio until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
12 de Junio have gone to Sol de America 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 12 de Junio 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Junio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
$300.0K was the most the club would pay and Sol de America were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
12 de Junio asked and Olimpia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Rodrigo Argüello will call it something else in private.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Matías Flores is in the works
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason 12 de Junio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
12 de Junio have gone to Sol de America 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.
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about 12 de Junio and Sportivo Ameliano in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fernando Bracho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.