24 Oct 2030
Thursday
Process
221 Edition

The Banfield Herald

21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

86 days out for Diego Rodríguez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ariel Torres

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariel Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Abraham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

3 matches without a goal for Banfield

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.

The dugout

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Match

Gimnasia La Plata take the points off Banfield

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Mateo Ostachi stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mateo Ostachi and Banfield agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

Back issues
220 Edition

The Banfield Herald

14 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

93 days out for Diego Rodríguez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

Nowhere to hide for Banfield

0‑3 against Racing Club, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

No hiding place for Santiago López García

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago López García, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

Inquest at Banfield

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Lisandro Piñero's mistake

Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.

The dugout

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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero gives it away

There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Banfield lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.

In brief

219 Edition

The Banfield Herald

7 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

100 days out for Diego Rodríguez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Ignacio Abraham signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ignacio Abraham and Banfield agree another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Banfield against Rosario Central

0‑2 to Rosario Central, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Braian Rojas

“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.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero was unplayable

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.

The dugout

Favio Álvarez does not fit this one

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.

In brief

218 Edition

The Banfield Herald

30 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Banfield run riot against Arsenal

7‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Squad

Diego Rodríguez breaks a bone — 107 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

A brace, and Facundo Krüger takes the afternoon — 9.22

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Facundo Krüger provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Match

Banfield refuse to drop out of the race

Position 3, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.39 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Brandon Oviedo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

One of those days for Rodrigo Auzmendi

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

217 Edition

The Banfield Herald

23 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

114 days out for Diego Rodríguez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ariel Torres

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariel Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.32 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Barracas Central take the points off Banfield

Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout

No hiding place for Juan Manuel Cruz

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Manuel Cruz, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero 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.

In brief

216 Edition

The Banfield Herald

16 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Diego Rodríguez breaks a bone — 121 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Ariel Torres keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Banfield may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi is carrying Banfield

14 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

A bad afternoon for Banfield against Independiente Rivadavia

1‑2 to Independiente Rivadavia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 ratings

Rodrigo Auzmendi in the eights

A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

215 Edition

The Banfield Herald

9 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Diego Rodríguez out for 128 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banfield will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Abraham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Lautaro Villegas signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lautaro Villegas and Banfield agree another 4 years.

The dugout

Lautaro Villegas 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.

The dugout

Banfield keep their word to Lautaro Villegas

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.

The dugout

Lautaro Gómez 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Lisandro Piñero story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lisandro Piñero signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Ignacio Pais gets picked when it counts

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 Ignacio Pais is on it.

In brief

214 Edition

The Banfield Herald

2 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Facundo Suárez out for 37 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banfield will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Alejo González: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banfield have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Only the photograph left for Brandon Oviedo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Oviedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Match

7 unbeaten for Banfield

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Banfield did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Lautaro Villegas stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Lautaro Villegas and Banfield agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Match

Tomás Adoryan the difference as Banfield beat Belgrano

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomás Adoryan. 1‑0 against Belgrano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Boardroom

Banfield release $15.4M for the manager

The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.

In brief

213 Edition

The Banfield Herald

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Facundo Suárez out for 44 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banfield will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Rodrigo Auzmendi scores twice — 9.37

Two goals and a mark of 9.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Ariel Torres has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Banfield

The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi is carrying Banfield

13 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Banfield see off Huracán

Three points for Banfield, 2‑1 the final word against Huracán in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout Somebody else is better right now than Juan Iribarren
  • The dugout When it matters, Facundo Suárez plays
212 Edition

The Banfield Herald

19 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Facundo Suárez out for 51 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banfield will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Both of them Rodrigo Auzmendi's — 9.26

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.26, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Abraham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.20 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 96 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Banfield had all but put away. River Plate will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

Match

Rodrigo Auzmendi rescues a point for Banfield

It needed Rodrigo Auzmendi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against River Plate, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

The dugout

No hiding place for Diego Rodríguez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Rodríguez, and the manager let it.

In brief

211 Edition

The Banfield Herald

12 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

58 days out for Facundo Suárez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banfield have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Lautaro Gómez signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lautaro Gómez and Banfield agree another 3 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Lautaro Villegas

“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.

Player ratings

Nobody on the pitch touched Facundo Krüger

7.93, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Banfield had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

Match

Honours even between Banfield and Atlético Tucumán

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

In brief

210 Edition

The Banfield Herald

5 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Facundo Suárez breaks a bone — 65 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Brandon Oviedo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Banfield hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Match

Banfield 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 ratings

Lisandro Piñero beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Lisandro Piñero

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.

Match

Banfield find a way past Aldosivi

Aldosivi made Banfield work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

209 Edition

The Banfield Herald

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Banfield spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Squad

Facundo Suárez breaks a bone — 72 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Lisandro Piñero asks to leave Banfield

“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.

Player ratings

Rodrigo Auzmendi scores twice — 9.19

Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ariel Torres

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariel Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Abraham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Rodrigo Auzmendi sends Banfield past Tigre

It finished 2‑1, and it was Rodrigo Auzmendi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Banfield.

In brief

208 Edition

The Banfield Herald

22 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Facundo Suárez out for 79 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banfield will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Player ratings

Vintage Favio Álvarez — 8.04

At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.04, and nobody on the pitch better.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 5 in, 7 out at Banfield

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Market

Banfield say no — this time

The offer from San Lorenzo for Valentín Chocobar was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Banfield lose Santiago Esquivel

17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Thiago Ocampo arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thiago Ocampo has, at Banfield, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Match

Banfield see off Sarmiento

Three points for Banfield, 2‑0 the final word against Sarmiento in a contest settled by the finer margins.

In brief

207 Edition

The Banfield Herald

15 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Facundo Suárez breaks a bone — 86 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Ariel Torres agrees terms with Chaco For Ever

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Banfield people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Leonel Galván will not be coming to Banfield

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Independiente is saying, and nobody at Banfield is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Eyes on Valentín Chocobar again

The phone has started ringing about Valentín Chocobar again, and this time the name on the line is San Lorenzo. Banfield are listening politely and promising nothing.

The dugout

No hiding place for Lucas Palavecino

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Palavecino, and the manager let it.

Squad

Francisco Silveti is a square peg at Banfield

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.

The dugout

Facundo Suárez has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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.

In brief

206 Edition

The Banfield Herald

8 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Facundo Suárez breaks a bone — 93 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

The dugout

Juan Manuel Cruz keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Banfield may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Banfield sign Francisco Silveti for $720.0K

The paperwork is done: Francisco Silveti joins from Estudiantes in a deal worth $720.0K. Now comes the harder part.

Transfer targets

Camilo Rey Domenech turns down Banfield

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Favio Álvarez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Favio Álvarez commits to Banfield for another 2 years.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Adoryan 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.

Boardroom

Banfield sign 8 boys into the academy

None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.

The dugout

No hiding place for Juan Iribarren

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Iribarren, and the manager let it.

In brief

205 Edition

The Banfield Herald

1 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Banfield board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Squad

100 days out for Facundo Suárez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Lisandro Piñero hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Banfield can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Banfield sink to position 13

11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

The dugout

Juan Iribarren: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banfield have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Banfield turn down Arsenal for Ariel Torres

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Transfer targets

Francisco Silveti due for a Banfield medical

Everything agreed with Estudiantes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

Brandon Oviedo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

In brief

204 Edition

The Banfield Herald

24 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Santiago López García

14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Banfield lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

107 days out for Facundo Suárez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Lucas Palavecino keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Banfield may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Transfer targets

Francisco Fraga due for a Banfield medical

Everything agreed with Racing Club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

Newell's Old Boys come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Banfield did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Boardroom

Fernando Magaldi will join Banfield for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Fernando Magaldi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Banfield have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Transfer targets

Banfield rebuffed over Ignacio Cellerino

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vélez have kept their man, and Banfield go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

203 Edition

The Banfield Herald

17 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Santiago López García damages knee ligaments — 21 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.

Squad

114 days out for Facundo Suárez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Facundo Suárez keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Banfield may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Alejo González asks to leave Banfield

“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.

Transfer targets

Banfield baulk at the price for Sebastián Marfort

Tigre wanted more than $1.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Jakub Zieliński rejects the move

Banfield had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Brondby, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Rosario Central tell Banfield: Ignacio Moreno is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Valentín Chocobar attracts admirers

The name of Valentín Chocobar has come up in conversations Banfield were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

In brief

202 Edition

The Banfield Herald

10 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Santiago López García out for 28 days

28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Banfield lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

A fracture rules Facundo Suárez out for 121 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banfield will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

The cup run ends for Banfield

0‑1 against Vélez, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Market

Ariel Torres turns San Miguel down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Isaías Aguirre puts it in writing

“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 Banfield, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

An offer of $1.3M for Sebastián Marfort

Banfield have gone to Tigre 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.

Market

Alejandro Cabrera is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Jakub Zieliński

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Banfield have done the hard part with Brondby, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets

Francisco Scarpeccio will not be coming to Banfield

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Newell's Old Boys is saying, and nobody at Banfield is enjoying the guessing.

In brief

201 Edition

The Banfield Herald

3 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Santiago López García

35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Banfield lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Lisandro Piñero asks to leave Banfield

“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.

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Banfield board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Match

Banfield sink to position 13

11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Only the photograph left for Brandon Oviedo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Oviedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Lucas Palavecino signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucas Palavecino commits to Banfield for another 4 years.

Market

Ariel Torres attracts admirers

The name of Ariel Torres has come up in conversations Banfield were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

In brief

200 Edition

The Banfield Herald

27 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Santiago López García damages knee ligaments — 42 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

Jonás Rodríguez 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.

Squad

Ignacio Pais 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.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti linked with a move away

The name of Facundo Sanguinetti keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Banfield say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

When it matters, Valentín Chocobar plays

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.

In brief

199 Edition

The Banfield Herald

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Santiago López García damages knee ligaments — 49 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.

Market

Ariel Torres has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Lucas Palavecino

“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.

Market

The Lisandro Piñero story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lisandro Piñero signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

When it matters, Ignacio Pais plays

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.

The dugout

Juan Manuel Cruz 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.

Squad

Thiago Echeverría has seen what the next man earns

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Banfield that is a harder question to answer.

In brief

198 Edition

The Banfield Herald

13 May 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Santiago López García out for 56 days

56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Banfield lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

A hiding for Banfield

Beaten 0‑3 by Argentinos Juniors, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Squad

6 saves: Facundo Sanguinetti was the team

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

No hiding place for Facundo Sanguinetti

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Sanguinetti, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 18. 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.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Banfield dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

The dugout

Interim Coach faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

197 Edition

The Banfield Herald

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Santiago López García out for 63 days

63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Banfield lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Lisandro Piñero hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Banfield can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Banfield sink to position 13

11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Brandon Oviedo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Banfield hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan was unplayable

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.

Squad

Banfield lose Ignacio Huanca

15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Player ratings

One of those days for Rodrigo Auzmendi

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

196 Edition

The Banfield Herald

29 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Santiago López García damages knee ligaments — 70 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.

Match

Banfield through in the cup

A 5‑3 win over Estudiantes, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Match

Banfield refuse to lose, and Facundo Suárez leads them

The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Facundo Suárez was at the centre of it, Estudiantes were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.

Player ratings

Both of them Cristian Jiménez Osuna's — 9.04

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Facundo Suárez yet — 10.00

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

A day Facundo Suárez will not forget

3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Facundo Sanguinetti

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Thiago Echeverría

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.

In brief

195 Edition

The Banfield Herald

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Santiago López García out for 77 days

77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Banfield lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

6 saves: Facundo Sanguinetti was the team

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.

Market

Ariel Torres is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Renzo Malanca

Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

Market

The Lisandro Piñero story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lisandro Piñero signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

194 Edition

The Banfield Herald

15 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Santiago López García

84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Banfield lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Banfield tear Arsenal apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Arsenal, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

Both of them Rodrigo Auzmendi's — 9.55

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

A brace, and Facundo Krüger takes the afternoon — 9.21

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Facundo Krüger provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Rodrigo Auzmendi among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Rodrigo Auzmendi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Banfield and Arsenal.

The terraces

Banfield supporters have found a favourite in Lisandro Piñero

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

At last: Banfield win one

5 matches without a win, and then this, against Arsenal. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan in the eights

A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

193 Edition

The Banfield Herald

8 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Santiago López García

91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Banfield lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Lisandro Piñero hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Banfield can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Every point is an argument now for Banfield

Position 13 and 6 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.

Match

No end in sight to Banfield's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Banfield has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Brandon Oviedo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Tomás Adoryan 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Tomás Adoryan

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Lisandro Piñero

“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.

In brief

192 Edition

The Banfield Herald

1 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Santiago López García out for 98 days

98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Banfield lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

No end in sight to Banfield's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Banfield has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Tomás Adoryan 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. 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.

Player ratings

Lautaro Villegas takes the honours

Marked 7.85 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Banfield had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

Tomás Adoryan is still paying for one afternoon at Banfield

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

Player ratings

A costly moment from Tomás Adoryan

One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Banfield, and it is a cruel one.

Match

Banfield share the spoils with Independiente Rivadavia

A 1‑1 draw with Independiente Rivadavia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

191 Edition

The Banfield Herald

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

The interim tag comes off Interim Coach

Banfield interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.

Market

Ariel Torres has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Banfield lose Ignacio Huanca

57 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Santiago Esquivel linked with a move away

The name of Santiago Esquivel keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Banfield say nothing, which says plenty.

Looking ahead

Renzo Malanca faces his old club

Independiente Rivadavia next, and one man in the Banfield dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

Squad

Country calls for Tomás Adoryan

He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Banfield lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.

The dugout

Jonás Rodríguez has been promised minutes

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 Jonás Rodríguez has written the date down.

In brief

190 Edition

The Banfield Herald

18 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Tomás Adoryan 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

The goals have deserted Banfield

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Banfield can tell you which week it ends in.

Match

Banfield come up short against Belgrano

Belgrano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Market

Lisandro Piñero linked with a move away

The name of Lisandro Piñero keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Banfield say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Facundo Suárez left out for tactical reasons at Banfield

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.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi says his piece

“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.

In brief

189 Edition

The Banfield Herald

11 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Brandon Oviedo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Boardroom

Banfield still without a manager

38 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Tomás Adoryan 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.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Banfield against Huracán

0‑1 to Huracán, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

Facundo Suárez 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.

Market

No place for Juan Iribarren in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan Iribarren has his answer from Banfield; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

188 Edition

The Banfield Herald

4 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Facundo Sanguinetti

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Banfield come up short against River Plate

River Plate left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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 dugout

Jonás Rodríguez 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.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Tomás Adoryan's mistake

Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.

Market

No place for Lautaro Villegas in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lautaro Villegas has his answer from Banfield; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

Player ratings

A costly moment from Tomás Adoryan

One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Banfield, and it is a cruel one.

In brief

187 Edition

The Banfield Herald

25 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Lautaro Gómez breaks a bone — 20 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

At last: Banfield win one

8 matches without a win, and then this, against Atlético Tucumán. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ariel Torres

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariel Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Tomás Adoryan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Rodrigo Auzmendi sends Banfield past Atlético Tucumán

It finished 2‑1, and it was Rodrigo Auzmendi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Banfield.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Rodrigo Auzmendi at his very best

Marked 8.70. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Banfield.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Facundo Krüger

Marked 8.47 — 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.

In brief

186 Edition

The Banfield Herald

18 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

28 days out for Lautaro Gómez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Match

8 matches without a win for Banfield

The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Banfield are no longer polite ones.

Match

The goals have deserted Banfield

5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Banfield can tell you which week it ends in.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 23. 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Player ratings

Ignacio Abraham stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.26 on the card, and the Banfield support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

Interim Coach on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Jonás Rodríguez

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.

In brief

185 Edition

The Banfield Herald

11 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A fracture rules Lautaro Gómez out for 37 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Banfield will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

No end in sight to Banfield's wait for a win

7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Banfield has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Brandon Oviedo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

The goals have deserted Banfield

4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Banfield can tell you which week it ends in.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Banfield dugout

10 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Facundo Sanguinetti

“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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Banfield against Tigre

0‑1 to Tigre, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Santiago López García 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.

In brief

184 Edition

The Banfield Herald

4 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Leonardo Lucero is out at Banfield

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

Squad

45 days out for Lautaro Gómez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Boardroom

A stranger takes charge at Banfield

The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.

Boardroom

Interim Coach minds the shop at Banfield

“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.

Match

No end in sight to Banfield's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Banfield has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Banfield hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Juan Luis Alfaro stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Luis Alfaro and Banfield agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

183 Edition

The Banfield Herald

28 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Lautaro Gómez breaks a bone — 53 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Ariel Torres is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

Rodrigo Auzmendi gets picked when it counts

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 Rodrigo Auzmendi is on it.

Market

The Facundo Sanguinetti question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Sanguinetti’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

The manager makes Lautaro Gómez a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Banfield. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

The dugout

Lautaro Villegas 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Boardroom

Banfield keep producing them

28 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.

In brief

182 Edition

The Banfield Herald

21 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

62 days out for Lautaro Gómez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Banfield will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Facundo Sanguinetti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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.

Market

The Ignacio Abraham story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignacio Abraham signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Squad

Lucas Palavecino has seen what the next man earns

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Banfield that is a harder question to answer.

In brief

181 Edition

The Banfield Herald

14 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Only the photograph left for Brandon Oviedo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Oviedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Lisandro Piñero and Banfield agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Transfer targets

Deadline beats Banfield to Lucas Ortíz

The clock did what Huracán would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.

Boardroom

Alan Sosa will join Banfield for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alan Sosa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Banfield have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Transfer targets

Kawasaki Frontale tell Banfield: Wataru Goto is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Talks stall between Banfield and Jonás Rodríguez

“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.

The dugout

When it matters, Lucas Palavecino plays

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.

In brief

180 Edition

The Banfield Herald

7 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Elián Báez gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Elián Báez has just signed for Banfield, and for once the answer mattered.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Francisco Scarpeccio rejects the move

Banfield had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Newell's Old Boys, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Iván Manzur

Banfield asked and Racing said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Facundo Suárez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Facundo Suárez commits to Banfield for another 2 years.

The dugout

Lisandro Piñero has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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 dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Market

Baltazar Blum Macías told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Baltazar Blum Macías has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Banfield.

In brief

179 Edition

The Banfield Herald

31 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Only the photograph left for Ariel Torres

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariel Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Banfield rebuffed over Gonzalo Lencina

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bragantino have kept their man, and Banfield go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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 dugout

Rodrigo Auzmendi has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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 dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

The dugout

Alejandro Cabrera 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.

Market

The Facundo Sanguinetti question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Sanguinetti’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Squad

Baltazar Blum Macías has seen what the next man earns

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Banfield that is a harder question to answer.

In brief

178 Edition

The Banfield Herald

24 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Terms done: Agustín Cañete is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Instituto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Banfield is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Agustín Cañete puts it in writing

“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 Banfield, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

Lucas Ortíz due for a Banfield medical

Everything agreed with Huracán, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Souleymane Alio

Banfield asked and FC Nordsjaelland said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Banfield lose Eduardo Castro

22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

Agustín Cañete stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Agustín Cañete and Banfield agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Facundo Sanguinetti gets picked when it counts

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 Facundo Sanguinetti is on it.

In brief

177 Edition

The Banfield Herald

17 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Banfield turn down River Plate for Rodrigo Auzmendi

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Ariel Torres agrees terms with Defensores Unidos

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Banfield people have started saying his name in the past tense.

The dugout

Alejandro Cabrera says Banfield went back on their word

“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.

Market

Alan Melognio asks to leave Banfield

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Brandon Oviedo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Oviedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Rodrigo Monserrat

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Banfield have done the hard part with Juventud, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Banfield rebuffed over Lisandro Cabrera

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and Banfield go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

176 Edition

The Banfield Herald

10 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Transfer targets

$600.0K settles it between the clubs for Thiago Berterame

Argentinos Juniors have accepted the money. What Banfield do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Eyes on Rodrigo Auzmendi again

The phone has started ringing about Rodrigo Auzmendi again, and this time the name on the line is Boca Juniors. Banfield are listening politely and promising nothing.

Market

Thiago Echeverría asks to leave Banfield

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Transfer targets

Banfield rebuffed over Wataru Goto

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kawasaki Frontale have kept their man, and Banfield go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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.

Squad

Juan Iribarren signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juan Iribarren commits to Banfield for another 3 years.

Transfer targets

Banfield ask about Ramón Villalba

A loan enquiry to Sheffield United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

When it matters, Lisandro Piñero plays

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.

In brief

175 Edition

The Banfield Herald

3 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Favio Álvarez stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Favio Álvarez and Banfield agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Iván Manzur

Banfield asked and Racing 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 dugout

When it matters, Rodrigo Auzmendi plays

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.

Market

The Rodrigo Auzmendi talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Banfield know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The terraces

The stands have heard the Rodrigo Auzmendi talk too

What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Banfield would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.

Squad

Juan Iribarren moves up the pecking order

Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Banfield than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.

Boardroom

Banfield can sign again

The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.

In brief

174 Edition

The Banfield Herald

26 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

When it matters, Facundo Sanguinetti plays

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.

The dugout

Thiago Echeverría 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.

Market

The Renzo Malanca question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Renzo Malanca’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

A door opens for Lautaro Gómez

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

In brief

173 Edition

The Banfield Herald

19 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Brandon Oviedo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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 dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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 Lisandro Piñero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

When it matters, Lucas Palavecino plays

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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Alejandro Cabrera

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Cabrera, and the manager let it.

In brief

172 Edition

The Banfield Herald

12 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Valentín Chocobar out for 14 days

The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Valentín Chocobar, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

The dugout

When it matters, Lisandro Piñero plays

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.

The dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Santiago Esquivel question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Santiago Esquivel’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

171 Edition

The Banfield Herald

5 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Banfield hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Facundo Krüger told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Facundo Krüger has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Banfield.

The dugout

Rodrigo Auzmendi has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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.

Squad

A place in the month's best eleven for Juan Luis Alfaro

Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Juan Luis Alfaro has come out of that comparison in the side, and Banfield have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.

Market

The Facundo Sanguinetti question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Sanguinetti’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Lautaro Gómez has been promised minutes

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 Lautaro Gómez has written the date down.

Boardroom

The Banfield production line keeps running

28 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.

In brief

170 Edition

The Banfield Herald

29 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Banfield bow out of the cup

Boca Juniors go through and Banfield go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

The wait goes on for Banfield

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.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 25. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Nobody wins at Banfield

8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Lautaro Villegas

“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 dugout

Facundo Sanguinetti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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.

In brief

  • The dugout Favio Álvarez asks for a word with the manager
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Player ratings Renzo Malanca was immovable
169 Edition

The Banfield Herald

22 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Lautaro Villegas: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banfield have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Brandon Oviedo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi is carrying Banfield

16 goals and a season average of 7.34. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

No hiding place for Facundo Suárez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Suárez, and the manager let it.

Match

Banfield and Gimnasia La Plata take a point apiece

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 dugout

Leonardo Lucero on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Leonardo Lucero after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

In brief

168 Edition

The Banfield Herald

15 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Racing Club punish Banfield for switching off

2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Rodrigo Auzmendi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Banfield escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.

Player ratings

A brace, and Rodrigo Auzmendi takes the afternoon — 9.23

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodrigo Auzmendi provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Rodrigo Auzmendi

15 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Favio Álvarez

“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.

Squad

Banfield count the cost of losing Valentín Chocobar

48 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Player ratings

Juan Luis Alfaro ran the middle of the pitch — 7.83

He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.83, and not one of them will make a highlights package.

In brief

167 Edition

The Banfield Herald

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Chastening afternoon for Banfield

A 1‑5 beating by Rosario Central was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez says Banfield went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Braian Rojas among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Braian Rojas on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Banfield and Rosario Central.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

Inquest at Banfield

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

Squad

Player of the month: Rodrigo Auzmendi

Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Banfield prefer.

Boardroom

Banfield release $14.7M for the manager

The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑5 Leonardo Lucero left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief

166 Edition

The Banfield Herald

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Rodrigo Auzmendi leads the rout of Aldosivi

4‑1, and Rodrigo Auzmendi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Banfield tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Rodrigo Auzmendi scores twice — 9.94

Two goals and a mark of 9.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Rodrigo Auzmendi

13 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Ignacio Abraham 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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Facundo Krüger

Marked 8.16 — 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Lisandro Piñero

Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Ignacio Abraham ran the middle of the pitch — 7.79

He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.

Squad

Cristian Jiménez Osuna signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cristian Jiménez Osuna commits to Banfield for another 4 years.

In brief

165 Edition

The Banfield Herald

24 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti keeps Banfield in it on his own

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.

Market

Brandon Oviedo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Santiago Esquivel

“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.

Match

Banfield come up short against Tigre

Tigre left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Squad

Isaías Aguirre stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Isaías Aguirre and Banfield agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

164 Edition

The Banfield Herald

17 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Banfield run riot against Patronato

5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

Both of them Rodrigo Auzmendi's — 9.35

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Both of them Lucas Palavecino's — 8.29

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.29, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

6 goals as Banfield and Patronato go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Banfield and Patronato, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Facundo Krüger at his very best

Marked 8.43. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Banfield.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.21 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

163 Edition

The Banfield Herald

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Banfield through in the cup

A 2‑1 win over Newell's Old Boys, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Match

Cruel end for Newell's Old Boys as Banfield pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Banfield scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Player ratings

Both of them Rodrigo Auzmendi's — 9.48

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Lisandro Piñero

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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 terraces

Banfield supporters have found a favourite in Lisandro Piñero

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

When it matters, Rodrigo Auzmendi plays

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.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leonardo Lucero on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

162 Edition

The Banfield Herald

3 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Only the photograph left for Gerardo Martínez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gerardo Martínez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Belgrano take the points off Banfield

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 18. 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.

Squad

Ignacio Pais signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ignacio Pais commits to Banfield for another 3 years.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Lucero after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad

A place in the month's best eleven for Lisandro Piñero

Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lisandro Piñero has come out of that comparison in the side, and Banfield have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez 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

161 Edition

The Banfield Herald

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti keeps Banfield in it on his own

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.

Market

Banfield say no — this time

The offer from Puebla for Agustín Cañete was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Only the photograph left for Brandon Oviedo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Oviedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Banfield find a way past Huracán

Huracán made Banfield work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Match

6 unbeaten for Banfield

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Banfield did not have in the autumn.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Facundo Krüger at his very best

Marked 8.57. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Banfield.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Rodrigo Auzmendi

Marked 8.31 — 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.

In brief

  • Player ratings Ninety minutes of Lisandro Piñero at his very best
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout No place in the plan for Favio Álvarez
160 Edition

The Banfield Herald

20 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Rodrigo Auzmendi scores twice — 9.27

Two goals and a mark of 9.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Banfield share the spoils with River Plate

A 2‑2 draw with River Plate leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonardo Lucero was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Banfield dressing room was either.

The dugout

No hiding place for Thiago Echeverría

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thiago Echeverría, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Facundo Suárez has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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.

Market

The Facundo Sanguinetti story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Facundo Sanguinetti signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

159 Edition

The Banfield Herald

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

A brace, and Lisandro Piñero takes the afternoon — 8.23

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lisandro Piñero provided it, and the 8.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Lisandro Piñero sends Banfield past Atlético Tucumán

It finished 3‑1, and it was Lisandro Piñero’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Banfield.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Lisandro Piñero

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.

Squad

Braian Rojas stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Braian Rojas and Banfield agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Facundo Suárez 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.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leonardo Lucero on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

158 Edition

The Banfield Herald

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Ignacio Pais says Banfield went back on their word

“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.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Banfield hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Gerardo Martínez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Alejo González gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alejo González has just signed for Banfield, and for once the answer mattered.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Lautaro Gómez

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Lautaro Gómez stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Lautaro Gómez and Banfield agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Nothing got past Renzo Malanca

16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.

In brief

157 Edition

The Banfield Herald

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti is the hero from the spot

A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Facundo Sanguinetti: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.

Match

Banfield march on in the cup

Independiente are out and Banfield go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Brandon Oviedo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banfield is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Rodrigo Auzmendi the difference as Banfield beat Independiente Rivadavia

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rodrigo Auzmendi. 1‑0 against Independiente Rivadavia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Lautaro Cano misses from twelve yards

It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Ignacio Abraham

A mark of 7.96, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

In brief

156 Edition

The Banfield Herald

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Santiago López García scores twice — 8.17

Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Thiago Sabella has said yes to Vélez

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Banfield have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 2 signed and 8 gone

That is the business done at Banfield until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

Banfield say no — this time

The offer from Independiente Rivadavia for Cristian Jiménez Osuna was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Braian Rojas has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Sarmiento take the points off Banfield

Beaten 3‑5, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Banfield and Sarmiento in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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

155 Edition

The Banfield Herald

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Brandon Oviedo agrees terms with Talleres

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Banfield people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Banfield walk away from Gaspar Duarte

$3.9M was the most the club would pay and Rosario Central were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Transfer targets

Faustino Barone is a medical away from Banfield

The deal with Cerro Porteno 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Hammarby tell Banfield: Élohim Kaboré is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Santiago López García 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.

Squad

A muscle injury and 18 days out for Ariel Torres

The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Banfield will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Market

Alejandro Cabrera told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alejandro Cabrera has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Banfield.

The dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

154 Edition

The Banfield Herald

9 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Braian Rojas agrees terms with Talleres

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Banfield people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Banfield make their move for Gaspar Duarte

$3.9M on the table at Rosario Central. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gerardo Martínez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gerardo Martínez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Diego Rodríguez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Diego Rodríguez commits to Banfield for another 2 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Independiente tell Banfield: Adrián Fernández is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Faustino Barone is in the works

Banfield have made the call to Cerro Porteno. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

The dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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 Lisandro Piñero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

153 Edition

The Banfield Herald

2 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Oscar Gonzalez due for a Banfield medical

Everything agreed with Godoy Cruz, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

Thiago Sabella puts it in writing

“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 Banfield, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Diego Rodríguez stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Rodríguez and Banfield agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Banfield rebuffed over Joaquín Freitas

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Banfield go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

Banfield ask about Élohim Kaboré

A loan enquiry to Hammarby: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Boardroom

Banfield sign 8 boys into the academy

None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez 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.

In brief

152 Edition

The Banfield Herald

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Banfield may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Agustín Cañete turns Belgrano down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Alejandro Cabrera puts it in writing

“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 Banfield, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Jeremías Correale

Banfield asked and Argentinos Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Fakel watching Cristian Jiménez Osuna

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Banfield have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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.

Squad

Gerardo Martínez out for 14 days

The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Gerardo Martínez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Alan Melognio signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alan Melognio and Banfield agree another 4 years.

In brief

151 Edition

The Banfield Herald

18 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Terms done: Thiago Sabella is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Belgrano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Banfield is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Leandro Garate

Banfield and Huracán have settled on $140.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.

Transfer targets

Camilo Viganoni will not be coming to Banfield

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tigre is saying, and nobody at Banfield is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Jorge De Asis

Banfield asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Banfield ask about Ramón Villalba

A loan enquiry to Sheffield United: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

No hiding place for Thiago Sabella

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thiago Sabella, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Facundo Suárez has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Banfield 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.

In brief

150 Edition

The Banfield Herald

11 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Banfield march on in the cup

Huracán are out and Banfield go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Player ratings

Facundo Suárez, 34, rolls back the years — 7.90

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Adrián Fernández

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Banfield have done the hard part with Independiente, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Boardroom

Gerardo Martínez has agreed to leave Banfield for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gerardo Martínez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gerardo Martínez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Banfield the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Transfer targets

Banfield rebuffed over Marcos Machado

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mitre have kept their man, and Banfield go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A move Ignacio Sarzynski would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ignacio Sarzynski is living that version at Banfield, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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.

In brief

149 Edition

The Banfield Herald

4 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Nahuel Romero hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Banfield can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Valentín Chocobar keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Banfield may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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.

Squad

Banfield lose Juan Manuel Cruz

40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

Banfield lose Joaquín Álvarez

24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Transfer targets

Banfield try to borrow Jorge De Asis

Gimnasia La Plata have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Alejandro Cabrera

“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 dugout

Braian Rojas gets picked when it counts

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 Braian Rojas is on it.

In brief

148 Edition

The Banfield Herald

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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.

The dugout

Banfield keep their word to Lautaro Gómez

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.

Market

The Facundo Sanguinetti question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Sanguinetti’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Ariel Torres gets picked when it counts

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 Ariel Torres is on it.

In brief

147 Edition

The Banfield Herald

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Ariel Torres: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banfield have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Abraham 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 dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Santiago Esquivel question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Santiago Esquivel’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

When it matters, Ignacio Pais plays

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.

In brief

146 Edition

The Banfield Herald

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Facundo Sanguinetti

There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Match

The wait goes on for Banfield

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Argentinos Juniors take the points off Banfield

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Santiago López García 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 dugout

Leonardo Lucero faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Lucero after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 15. 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Facundo Suárez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Suárez, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez dropped after a run of poor form

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.

In brief

145 Edition

The Banfield Herald

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Tomás Adoryan

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Banfield hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Favio Álvarez stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Favio Álvarez and Banfield agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Player ratings

Rodrigo Auzmendi in the eights

A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

A place in the month's best eleven for Lisandro Piñero

Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lisandro Piñero has come out of that comparison in the side, and Banfield have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.

Match

Rodrigo Auzmendi rescues a point for Banfield

It needed Rodrigo Auzmendi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Gimnasia La Plata, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Leonardo Lucero after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

In brief

144 Edition

The Banfield Herald

30 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 25. 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Abraham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Banfield come up short against Racing Club

Racing Club left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Alejandro Cabrera

“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 dugout

The form table has caught Diego Rodríguez

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.

Market

No place for Gino Santilli in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gino Santilli has his answer from Banfield; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

143 Edition

The Banfield Herald

23 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti stands alone

12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Squad

4 goals for Juan Manuel Cruz

The match ball belongs to Juan Manuel Cruz, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Match

Banfield march on in the cup

Racing are out and Banfield go through, 7‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Player ratings

Both of them Cristian Jiménez Osuna's — 9.78

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.78, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Sergio Aguilera beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Ignacio Pais pops up at the right end — 7.97

7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

8 goals as Banfield and Racing go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Banfield and Racing, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Player ratings

Juan Manuel Cruz was on a different afternoon to everybody else

9.90. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

In brief

142 Edition

The Banfield Herald

16 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 dugout

Diego Rodríguez dropped after a run of poor form

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 dugout

Half-satisfied: Leonardo Lucero on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Match

Point won or two lost for Banfield?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Aldosivi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

Market

The Ignacio Abraham question follows Banfield around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ignacio Abraham’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Looking ahead

A reunion for Diego Rodríguez

He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rosario Central in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.

Player ratings

The chances came and went for Rodrigo Auzmendi

6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.

In brief

141 Edition

The Banfield Herald

9 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Ignacio Abraham 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.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Match

Tigre take the points off Banfield

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

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 Leonardo Lucero to a room that had heard them before.

Market

No place for Lautaro Gómez in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lautaro Gómez has his answer from Banfield; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

The dugout

Banfield pick somebody else ahead of Diego Rodríguez

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Player ratings

The chances came and went for Rodrigo Auzmendi

11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.

In brief

140 Edition

The Banfield Herald

2 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27

A mark of 8.27 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.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Favio Álvarez yet — 8.14

At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The terraces

One of their own: Lisandro Piñero

He is 21 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.

Match

Banfield see off Patronato

Three points for Banfield, 2‑0 the final word against Patronato in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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.

Market

Facundo Krüger told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Facundo Krüger has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Banfield.

Player ratings

The one thing Rodrigo Auzmendi could not do

Shots: 14, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.

Squad

Thiago Echeverría makes the team of the month

Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

In brief

139 Edition

The Banfield Herald

26 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Banfield board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Máximo Desábato is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Banfield has been clear about where Máximo Desábato stands, which is more than many ever get.

Market

The Facundo Sanguinetti story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Facundo Sanguinetti signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Squad

Tomás Adoryan called up by his country

A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Banfield that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.

The dugout

The manager makes Alejandro Cabrera a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Banfield. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

The dugout

Máximo Desábato 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 Banfield, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Boardroom

The Banfield production line keeps running

28 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.

In brief

138 Edition

The Banfield Herald

19 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Banfield throw away a 2-goal lead

2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Belgrano the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Banfield will enjoy reviewing.

Player ratings

Rodrigo Auzmendi scores twice — 9.13

Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Ignacio Abraham 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.

Match

Banfield share the spoils with Belgrano

A 2‑2 draw with Belgrano leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez dropped after a run of poor form

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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonardo Lucero was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Banfield dressing room was either.

Player ratings

Tomás Adoryan beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Baltazar Blum Macías

“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.

In brief

137 Edition

The Banfield Herald

12 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

A bad afternoon for Banfield against Huracán

0‑1 to Huracán, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings

The game went through Ignacio Abraham — 7.17

Marked 7.17 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Lucero after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Facundo Suárez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Suárez, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Banfield pick somebody else ahead of Diego Rodríguez

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Squad

Facundo Krüger named player of the week

One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Facundo Krüger has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.

Player ratings

The one thing Rodrigo Auzmendi could not do

Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.

In brief

136 Edition

The Banfield Herald

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

3 goals for Facundo Krüger

The match ball belongs to Facundo Krüger, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Facundo Sanguinetti

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

Rodrigo Auzmendi signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rodrigo Auzmendi commits to Banfield for another 4 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 ratings

Facundo Krüger in the eights

A performance of 9.70 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Facundo Krüger sends Banfield past River Plate

It finished 3‑1, and it was Facundo Krüger’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Banfield.

The dugout

Leonardo Lucero has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leonardo Lucero on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Tomás Adoryan

Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

The form table has caught Diego Rodríguez

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.

In brief

135 Edition

The Banfield Herald

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

The mood at Banfield has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Lisandro Piñero runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Abraham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Rodrigo Auzmendi at his very best

Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Banfield.

The dugout

Alejandro Cabrera 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.

Match

Honours even between Banfield and Atlético Tucumán

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

The dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Diego Rodríguez

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.

In brief

134 Edition

The Banfield Herald

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Facundo Krüger the difference as Banfield beat Barracas Central

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Facundo Krüger. 1‑0 against Barracas Central, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Tomás Adoryan

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Juan Luis Alfaro takes the honours

Marked 7.85 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Banfield had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

A satisfied Leonardo Lucero

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Leonardo Lucero could afford to be generous.

The dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez dropped after a run of poor form

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.

Squad

Player of the week: Tomás Adoryan

Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.

In brief

133 Edition

The Banfield Herald

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Lisandro Piñero at 21 — 7.62

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lisandro Piñero did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti 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.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 terraces

Banfield supporters have found a favourite in Lisandro Piñero

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Match

Banfield get the job done against Independiente Rivadavia

A 2‑0 win over Independiente Rivadavia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Match

The drought breaks for Banfield

5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Independiente Rivadavia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Tomás Adoryan at his very best

Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Banfield.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Leonardo Lucero kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout

Banfield pick somebody else ahead of Diego Rodríguez

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

In brief

132 Edition

The Banfield Herald

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The wait goes on for Banfield

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.

Squad

Tomás Adoryan stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomás Adoryan and Banfield agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Banfield

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.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Abraham 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.

Market

One of our own: Tomás Aguirre joins the Banfield first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tomás Aguirre is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Banfield promote Gabriel Arce from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriel Arce 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.

Market

Banfield promote Pedro Silva from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pedro Silva 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.

Market

Banfield promote Leonardo Iglesias from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leonardo Iglesias 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.

In brief

131 Edition

The Banfield Herald

29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Banfield spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Squad

Santiago López García 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.

Squad

Brandon Oviedo stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Brandon Oviedo and Banfield agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

Renzo Malanca linked with a move away

The name of Renzo Malanca keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Banfield say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

A door opens for Alejandro Cabrera

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

In brief

130 Edition

The Banfield Herald

22 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Banfield give the job to Leonardo Lucero

The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.

Squad

Facundo Sanguinetti 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Piñero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Sergio Aguilera stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergio Aguilera and Banfield agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

A fresh start for Rodrigo Auzmendi under the new man

Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Rodrigo Auzmendi has taken the hint, and Banfield are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti linked with a move away

The name of Facundo Sanguinetti keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Banfield say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Alejandro Cabrera has been promised minutes

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 Alejandro Cabrera has written the date down.

Market

Banfield put Nahuel Romero up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nahuel Romero may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

Boardroom

The Banfield academy earns its keep

23 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.

In brief

129 Edition

The Banfield Herald

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Lisandro Piñero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Abraham 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.

Transfer targets

Cerro Porteno tell Banfield: Faustino Barone is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

The Ignacio Abraham story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignacio Abraham signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Squad

A wage question at Banfield

Santiago López García has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.

The dugout

Ariel Torres has been promised minutes

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 Ariel Torres has written the date down.

In brief

128 Edition

The Banfield Herald

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Banfield are in real trouble now

Position 14, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Market

Cristian Jiménez Osuna agrees terms with Alianza Atletico

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Banfield people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at Banfield

Day 38 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.

Squad

Lisandro Piñero 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Facundo Suárez stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Facundo Suárez and Banfield agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Mario Galeano

Banfield asked and Atletico Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago López 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 dugout

Lisandro Piñero 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.

Market

The Santiago Esquivel story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Esquivel signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

127 Edition

The Banfield Herald

1 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Banfield spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

The dugout

Diego Rodríguez says Banfield went back on their word

“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.

Market

Alejandro Cabrera asks to leave Banfield

“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.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Banfield hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Camilo Viganoni rejects the move

Banfield had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Tigre, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Facundo Sanguinetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lisandro Piñero 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.

Transfer targets

Penarol tell Banfield: Álvaro López is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Alianza Atletico join the queue for Cristian Jiménez Osuna

Add another name to the list: Alianza Atletico have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Cristian Jiménez Osuna. The answer from Banfield has not changed — yet.

In brief

126 Edition

The Banfield Herald

25 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Transfer targets

Gonzalo Lencina is a medical away from Banfield

The deal with Platense 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.

Market

Gerardo Martínez asks to leave Banfield

“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.

Squad

Diego Rodríguez 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Banfield training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Abraham 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.

Transfer targets

FC Nordsjaelland tell Banfield: Souleymane Alio is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Market

Facundo Sanguinetti linked with a move away

The name of Facundo Sanguinetti keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Banfield say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

A door opens for Ariel Torres

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

The dugout

Valentín Chocobar 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 Valentín Chocobar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Boardroom

The Banfield production line keeps running

23 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.

In brief

125 Edition

The Banfield Herald

18 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Abel Galbán puts it in writing

“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 Banfield, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

San Miguel come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Banfield did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Tempers go at Banfield

Diego Rodríguez 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.

Transfer targets

Sivasspor tell Banfield: Enzo López is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

A row about effort at Banfield

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago López García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Banfield ask about Souleymane Alio

A loan enquiry to FC Nordsjaelland: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Squad

Julio Coria is a square peg at Banfield

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.

Market

The Ignacio Abraham story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignacio Abraham signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

The manager makes Ariel Torres a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Banfield. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

124 Edition

The Banfield Herald

11 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Banfield sink to position 14

10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

The dugout

Lautaro Villegas: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Banfield have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Transfer targets

$56.0K settles it between the clubs for Adrián Fernández

Independiente have accepted the money. What Banfield do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Tiago Benzi asks to leave Banfield

“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.

Boardroom

Joaquín González has agreed to leave Banfield for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Squad

Words exchanged at Banfield

Diego Rodríguez 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.

Squad

Ignacio Abraham 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.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at Banfield

Day 10 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.

Transfer targets

Atletico Nacional tell Banfield: Emilio Aristizábal is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

In brief

123 Edition

The Banfield Herald

4 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Banfield part company with Juan Manuel González

The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.

The terraces

The mood at Banfield has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Boardroom

Juan Pablo Lombardi takes charge at Banfield

“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.

Market

Máximo Desábato puts it in writing

“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 Banfield, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Diego Rodríguez signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Rodríguez and Banfield agree another 2 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Banfield

Diego Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Ignacio Abraham 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.

Transfer targets

Banfield rebuffed over Joaquín Correa

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Banfield go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Boardroom

news_h_severance_paid

news_b_severance_paid

In brief

122 Edition

The Banfield Herald

27 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Gabriel Iglesias

18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Banfield lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Banfield boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Valentín Viola has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Banfield they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Diego Rodríguez 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 Banfield this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Santiago López García 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.

Squad

Martín Lazarte stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Martín Lazarte and Banfield agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

The Renzo Malanca story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Renzo Malanca signs something — a contract at Banfield or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

The manager makes Ariel Torres a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Banfield. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

The dugout

Gino Santilli 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 Gino Santilli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief