Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Axel Suárez has just signed for 2 de Mayo, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elías Alfonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at 2 de Mayo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Junior Balbuena trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Axel Suárez is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 2 de Mayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at 2 de Mayo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Mendoza 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Elías Alfonso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. 2 de Mayo will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at 2 de Mayo 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.
Adilson Lezcano 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Elías Alfonso 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Lucas Franco has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means 2 de Mayo have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
In brief
The dugoutElías Alfonso asks for a word with the manager
Marcelo Acosta 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.
Everybody at 2 de Mayo saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elías Alfonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Thiago Vidal
The dugoutRubén González has become a man the manager trusts
Elías Alfonso 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at 2 de Mayo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Mendoza 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.
Junior Balbuena 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 Elías Alfonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at 2 de Mayo 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 2 de Mayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Enrique Estigarribia is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Mendoza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at 2 de Mayo 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 2 de Mayo 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 Elías Alfonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation 2 de Mayo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad14 Sep 2026
18 new faces, and 2 de Mayo 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.
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 Adilson Lezcano is on 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 2 de Mayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at 2 de Mayo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elías Alfonso 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 2 de Mayo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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. Elías Alfonso has moved up it.
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.
Marcelo Acosta 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 Aug 2026
Words at 2 de Mayo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Mendoza 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 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 Enrique Estigarribia is on it.
Sportivo Ameliano go through and 2 de Mayo go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcelo Acosta 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.” Hugo Cubas after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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.
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.
17 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Hugo Cubas could afford to be generous.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Guido Aquino has, at 2 de Mayo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Marcelo Acosta 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Sergio Fretes is a 2 de Mayo player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at 2 de Mayo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Mendoza 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Juan Alderete 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. Diego Acosta 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 easiest signature of my career.” Elías Alfonso and 2 de Mayo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at 2 de Mayo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Acosta 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Elías Alfonso’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.