Everything agreed with Cerro Porteno, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
Marcos Duré 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.
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.
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.
12 de Junio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Guarani, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at 12 de Junio has been clear about where Marcos Duré stands, which is more than many ever get.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. 12 de Junio know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cerro Porteno is saying, and nobody at 12 de Junio is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Marcos Ojeda 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Iván Ortiz did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Oscar Cáceres 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Iván Ortiz 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then General Caballero JLM scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
Oscar Cáceres 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.
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.
The dugout14 Jun 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.” Diego Balbuena chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Position 15 and 12 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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Iván Ortiz, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 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.
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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. 12 de Junio will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Marcos Duré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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.
Boardroom31 May 2027
145% 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.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
“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.
Marcos Duré 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one 12 de Junio will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Marcos Duré 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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.
Marcos Ojeda 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 Diego Aranda is on it.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for 12 de Junio
“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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Igor Valdez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to 12 de Junio.
Boardroom3 May 2027
129% 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.
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at 12 de Junio.
Squad3 May 2027
Igor Valdez 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.
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 Cáceres 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mariano Alexis Torres has, at 12 de Junio, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mariano Alexis Torres and 12 de Junio agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marcos Duré 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Oscar Cáceres 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Aranda, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Diego Balbuena to a room that had heard them before.
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 Diego Aranda is on it.
Iván Ortiz, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 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.
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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Independiente CG left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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.
Marcos Duré 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.
At 38, 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.
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.
“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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alan Aquino has written the date down.
Everybody at 12 de Junio saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Fernando de la Mora? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at 12 de Junio was different afterwards.
Oscar Cáceres had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Deportivo Capiata were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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 Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sportivo Carapegua were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Oscar Cáceres and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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 22 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.
A 1‑0 win over Sportivo Carapegua, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
11 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. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Iván Ortiz did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marcos Duré 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.
8 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout1 Mar 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.” Diego Balbuena chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Player ratingsOscar Cáceres beats them one at a time
“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.
Marcos Duré 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 Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Balbuena after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Villamayor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
9 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.
“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 Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Balbuena after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
8 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.
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.
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.
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.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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 Iván Ortiz is on it.
Marcos Duré 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jonathan Lozano 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.
In brief
Squad9 new faces, and 12 de Junio are still learning each other
Jonathan Lozano 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at 12 de Junio the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Marcos Ojeda
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for 12 de Junio is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ramon Alderete is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Libertad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Marcos Ojeda is a 12 de Junio player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Marcos Duré 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. Sportivo Luqueno have kept their man, and 12 de Junio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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
Squad10 new faces, and 12 de Junio are still learning each other
The deal with Sol de America is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. César Rolón has just signed for 12 de Junio, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Igor Valdez has just signed for 12 de Junio, and for once the answer mattered.
12 de Junio asked and Guarani 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.
22 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.
Robert Maciel 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 $31.0K; Sportivo Luqueno 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian García 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 loan enquiry to Sportivo Luqueno: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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 Iván Ortiz is on it.
29 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.
Jonathan Lozano 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.
12 de Junio have gone to Sportivo Luqueno 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kevin Lezcano has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means 12 de Junio have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad7 Dec 2026
José Báez 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.
A loan enquiry to Sportivo Luqueno: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and 12 de Junio are still learning each other
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
He came through the session, took part in everything and finished it smiling. 12 de Junio will not rush him, and he will spend the next fortnight trying to rush them.
“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.
Marcos Duré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Báez 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 easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Lozano and 12 de Junio agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Robert Maciel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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 Iván Ortiz is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gustavo Valdez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivan Romero is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Valdez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Robert Maciel 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 12 de Junio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Báez 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.
Robert Maciel 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 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
SquadDerlis Lopez is not doing himself any favours
“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.
Robert Maciel 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
In brief
Squad15 new faces, and 12 de Junio are still learning each other
The dugoutIván Ortiz has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Antonio Gomez
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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
In brief
MarketA stepping stone, not a home, for Alan Aquino
Marcos Duré 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 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.
A programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
He came through the session, took part in everything and finished it smiling. 12 de Junio will not rush him, and he will spend the next fortnight trying to rush them.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leandro Caballero and 12 de Junio agree another 4 years.
14 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutIván Ortiz has become a man the manager trusts
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edgar Enciso 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edgar Caceres 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.
“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.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at 12 de Junio than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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.
Robert Maciel 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: 20. 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.
At 23 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Fernando de la Mora defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at 12 de Junio was different afterwards.
Robert Maciel 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
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.
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
13 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.
It needed Fulvio Duarte to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Deportivo Capiata, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
The dugoutIván Ortiz has become a man the manager trusts
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jesús Servín has, at 12 de Junio, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nelson Valenzuela and 12 de Junio agree another 4 years.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ivan Gamarra has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Federico Cubas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Federico Enciso 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Roberto Santa Cruz 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.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and 12 de Junio will not try tonight.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. 12 de Junio were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.