Marked for Luis Lezcano
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tembetary lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 May 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.
Match29 May 2027
The wait goes on for Tembetary
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Bryan Bentaberry 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 May 2027
A row about effort at Tembetary
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Colmán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Luis Lezcano
“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.
Match29 May 2027
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The dugout31 May 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.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Jorge Colmán beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 May 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.
Squad24 May 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 Tembetary this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Tembetary training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Colmán 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 dugout24 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gustavo Cardozo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout24 May 2027
Richar Candia knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tembetary, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead24 May 2027
Tembetary take on the side everybody is chasing
Cerro Porteno arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout24 May 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bryan Bentaberry 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Tembetary
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Colmán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Luis Lezcano 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Joel Aguilar
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gustavo Cardozo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Néstor Esteche knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Néstor Esteche trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Match10 Apr 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Nacional 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
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Tembetary
Bryan Bentaberry 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
Olimpia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabricio Brener, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Apr 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Gustavo Cardozo to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tembetary will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Néstor Esteche asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead5 Apr 2027
Nacional next, and one man in the Tembetary dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Luis Lezcano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Tembetary training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Busto 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Matías Silvero back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Tembetary has worked with Matías Silvero before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Tembetary
Miguel Busto 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Miguel Urquiza
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.