José Miers 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between 12 de Octubre and Sportivo Luqueno, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Sportivo Luqueno left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at 12 de Octubre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Martínez 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Ivan Gimenez to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Jonathan Roa
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Reartes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at 12 de Octubre 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at 12 de Octubre is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Derlis Martínez and 12 de Octubre agree another 4 years.
Leonel Szalich 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Reartes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sebastián López has just signed for 12 de Octubre, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abel Amaya was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Milciades Adorno 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Sanabria has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gustavo Valdez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Federico Sanabria is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and General Caballero had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and 12 de Octubre did not stop to explain themselves.
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 Octubre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Fernández. 1‑0 against General Caballero, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at 12 de Octubre pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.