Marked for Alejandro Samudio
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Nacional
Santiago Rojas 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch3 May 2027
30 appearances at AVS and the goals keep coming. Nacional are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad3 May 2027
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Meza 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.
Match1 May 2027
Nacional rescue it on 90 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. River Plate had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Bailone, and the manager let it.
Squad3 May 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match6 Mar 2027
Nacional through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over 12 de Octubre, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match3 Mar 2027
Cup progress for Nacional
A 3‑2 win over 12 de Octubre, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Franco Pelozo, 21, steals the show — 8.28
Marked 8.28 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match6 Mar 2027
Nacional 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
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Orlando Gaona Lugo commits to Nacional for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Santiago Rojas 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 terraces8 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Derlis Caballero 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Josué Colmán 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.
In brief
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Diego Duarte’s exile
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Player ratings
Hugo Benítez in the eights
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Squad
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Nacional
Santiago Rojas 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Alejandro Samudio 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 watch18 Jan 2027
21 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nacional lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Celso Ortiz 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 Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Elías Villar, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.