“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Veracruz for Cristian Jiménez 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.
“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 Cruz Azul hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Cruz Azul have gone to Leon with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $4.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Leon drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and Leon 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.
The terraces26 Jun 2028
Cruz Azul spend $4.6M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.6M for Valentín Gauthier, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Tahiel Jiménez 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cruz Azul are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Not every move is upward. He has taken terms worse than the ones he left, and the only question that matters now is whether the football makes up the difference.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruz Azul lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Santos Laguna for Bryan Gamboa 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cruz Azul have done the hard part with Guadalajara, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Cruz Azul asked and Tijuana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Cruz Azul have made the call to Santos Laguna. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 5 on 61 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
He is going to Guadalajara, the club has $9.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Add another name to the list: Atlas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jorge Rodarte. The answer from Cruz Azul has not changed — yet.
Cruz Azul asked and Pachuca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Queretaro will make the call about Rodrigo Moriñigo this week. Cruz Azul have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Santos Laguna 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruz Azul lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cruz Azul people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Santos Laguna 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cruz Azul can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Cruz Azul asked and Toluca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruz Azul lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Cruz Azul will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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 Erik Lira is on it.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Cruz Azul have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Agustín Palavecino may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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 Jordan Carrillo has written the date down.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruz Azul lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jesús Orozco Chiquete trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Agustín Palavecino signs something — a contract at Cruz Azul or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Cruz Azul would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Daniel Parra is living that version at Cruz Azul, and it tends to show in the first month.
Luka Romero 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Agustín Palavecino is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Gonzalo Piovi is on it.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luka Romero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every 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 Erik Lira is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cruz Azul, another week without a signature from Gabriel Fernández.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Cruz Azul would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Luís Esteves has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jeremy Márquez’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gabriel Fernández and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Cruz Azul will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Agustín Palavecino signs something — a contract at Cruz Azul or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Agustín Palavecino has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Derby days make names, and Agustín Palavecino made his against Club America. 3‑1, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Position 5 on 61 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Cruz Azul and a story that will outlast his contract.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Raul Corona could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Romero 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.
Three points for Cruz Azul, 2‑0 the final word against Monterrey in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Luka Romero was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Club America on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luka Romero has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
“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 dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Carlos Techera'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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jordan Carrillo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cruz Azul needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Cruz Azul have no good answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Something was said to Jeremy Márquez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Agustín Palavecino signs something — a contract at Cruz Azul or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Pumas UNAM defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Minute 92, against Tigres, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
Luka Romero 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
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 Cruz Azul prefer.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
0‑1 to Santos Laguna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Elias Manoel 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
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 Raul Corona to a room that had heard them before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Agustín Palavecino is on it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Agustín Palavecino has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Atlas next, and one man in the Cruz Azul dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
Player ratingsWaldo Madrid beats them one at a time
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cruz Azul.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Elias Manoel 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.
“I did not go to Defensor Sporting to sit and watch. I want to come back to Cruz Azul and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jeremy Márquez. 1‑0 against Queretaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Jeremy Márquez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Luís Esteves will call it something else in private.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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.” Raul Corona kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
13 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Cruz Azul close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
6 goals in one match, Agustín Palavecino on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cruz Azul and Dorados.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Agustín Palavecino. 4‑2 against Dorados, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monterrey have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Something was said to Nicolás Ibáñez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elias Manoel 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 dugout31 Jan 2028
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 Raul Corona left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Agustín Palavecino is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Javier Güemez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cruz Azul needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I watch every Cruz Azul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Defensor Sporting runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Raul Corona after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cruz Azul will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.86 for the rest of it.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ángel Sepúlveda is a Cruz Azul player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
José Juan Macías 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Elias Manoel 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Chiapas had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Cruz Azul did not stop to explain themselves.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tigres is saying, and nobody at Cruz Azul is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Guadalajara this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Cruz Azul asked and Guadalajara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elias Manoel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Pumas UNAM for Erik Lira 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cruz Azul had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8.14. 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.
Cruz Azul have made the call to Pumas UNAM. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Agustín Palavecino is on it.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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.” Raul Corona kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Elias Manoel 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.
“I did not go to Defensor Sporting to sit and watch. I want to come back to Cruz Azul and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Raul Corona after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
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 Gonzalo Piovi is on it.
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 dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Raul Corona was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Cruz Azul dressing room was either.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Emiliano Castañeda is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Position 6, 29 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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 dugout6 Dec 2027
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 0‑4 Raul Corona left the room before anybody could ask which.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Javier Güemez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Something was said to Gabriel Fernández and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Cruz Azul will be judged on one thing only.
9 combined actions and 6.95. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Cruz Azul, and 7 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Cruz Azul will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Raul Corona after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jordan Carrillo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cruz Azul needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Erik Lira’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cruz Azul needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Next up on the road: Pumas UNAM, position 4. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Agustín Palavecino. 3‑1 against Tigres, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 dugout8 Nov 2027
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.” Raul Corona kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Agustín Palavecino 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.
Something was said to Agustín Palavecino and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Raul Corona to a room that had heard them before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Willer Ditta is on it.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
8.06. 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.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Cruz Azul had all but put away. Santos Laguna will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
It needed Agustín Palavecino to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Santos Laguna, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Raul Corona could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Santos Laguna next, and one man in the Cruz Azul dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cruz Azul has been clear about where Cristian Jiménez stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cruz Azul, another week without a signature from Rodrigo Moriñigo.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruz Azul. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Cruz Azul the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Agustín Palavecino decided otherwise. Queretaro had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Andrés Gudiño is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Raul Corona on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Cruz Azul will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
17 combined actions and 7.17. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Guadalajara had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Agustín Palavecino was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Raul Corona was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Cruz Azul dressing room was either.
Something was said to Waldo Madrid and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Leon? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Guadalajara in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Cruz Azul close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 23 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Erik Lira 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cruz Azul will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Cruz Azul have made the call to Santos Laguna. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
Carlos Techera is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Javier Güemez has moved up it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
Cruz Azul asked and Santos Laguna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Guadalajara paid $1.2M and Cruz Azul took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
91 minutes played. Gabriel Fernández found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Morelia went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Kano Pillars for Christian Ebere 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.
Jesús Orozco Chiquete 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Erik Lira 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Palavecino wants continental football; whether Cruz Azul can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cruz Azul and Pachuca in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
0‑3 to Puebla, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Carlos Rodríguez was one of the reasons people came, and $33.5M does not replace that by itself.
Pachuca paid $1.5M and Cruz Azul took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jesús Orozco Chiquete and Cruz Azul agree another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremy Márquez 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.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Agustín Palavecino provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Dorados paid $8.5M and Cruz Azul took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Omar Campos has gone, the accounts have $8.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A conversation is coming this week. Cruz Azul will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Cruz Azul
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
In brief
SquadWords at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cruz Azul is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Cruz Azul offered $28.0K; Leon said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cruz Azul are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guadalajara have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$28.0K on the table at Leon. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Gudiño 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.
Nobody at Cruz Azul will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Santos Laguna for Carlos Rodríguez 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.
The deal with Queretaro 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Emi Ochoa 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.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cruz Azul people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cruz Azul asked and Pumas UNAM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luka Romero wants continental football; whether Cruz Azul can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Puebla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cruz Azul is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Palavecino wants continental football; whether Cruz Azul can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Emiliano Castañeda is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Gudiño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cruz Azul asked and Atlas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Atletico Nacional arrived with $18.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Omar Campos had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
José Paradela has gone, the accounts have $18.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cruz Azul have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Add another name to the list: Atletico Nacional have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about José Paradela. The answer from Cruz Azul has not changed — yet.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
Cruz Azul asked and Queretaro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cruz Azul are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Gudiño is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Erik Lira is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruz Azul. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Cruz Azul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
63 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruz Azul. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Omar Campos
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Erik Lira signs something — a contract at Cruz Azul or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
Carlos Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Gudiño is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Piovi is on it.
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
Something was said to José Paradela and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Erik Lira 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jesús Orozco Chiquete trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cruz Azul, another week without a signature from Jorge Rodarte.
Position 5 on 63 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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 Jeremy Márquez has written the date down.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Gudiño is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Cruz Azul know it.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
Víctor Tabaoda 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Erik Lira 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.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Club America next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cruz Azul will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Gudiño 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.
“I watch every Cruz Azul game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Erik Lira is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cruz Azul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Carlos 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruz Azul lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cruz Azul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Tigres; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabriel Fernández was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cruz Azul will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriel Fernández and Cruz Azul agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Gudiño 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cruz Azul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Cruz Azul did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Erik Lira 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.
Minute 87, against Santos Laguna, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cruz Azul told José Paradela something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Cruz Azul, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruz Azul lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cruz Azul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cruz Azul will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Cruz Azul had all but put away. Queretaro will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Ebere was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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 dugoutCarlos Rotondi dropped after a run of poor form
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cruz Azul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cruz Azul will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Morelia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cruz Azul people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Leon; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Leon the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Cruz Azul will enjoy reviewing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Willer Ditta delivers — 7.92
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Willer Ditta scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Add another name to the list: Enyimba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Christian Ebere. The answer from Cruz Azul has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Plateau United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cruz Azul is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Position 3, 48 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.
Everything agreed with Queretaro, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Add another name to the list: OB have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luka Romero. The answer from Cruz Azul has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Morelia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cruz Azul is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Guadalajara go through and Cruz Azul go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Guadalajara for Carlos Rodríguez 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Ibáñez provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
6 goals in one match, Nicolás Ibáñez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cruz Azul and Chiapas.
The offer from Pumas UNAM for Erik Lira 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The name of Christian Ebere has come up in conversations Cruz Azul were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Agustín Palavecino was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Omar Campos. 3‑1 against Puebla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cruz Azul.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Omar Campos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Raul Corona could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Jeremy Márquez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs 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.
Derby days make names, and Agustín Palavecino made his against Club America. 2‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
The offer from Independiente for Omar Campos 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Erik Lira 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.
Josué Díaz 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Cruz Azul scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cruz Azul have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Carlos Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Cruz Azul can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Erik Lira 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Paradela. 2‑1 against Monterrey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cruz Azul can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Cruz Azul will be judged on one thing only.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
Monterrey next, and one man in the Cruz Azul dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
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 Amaury García is on it.
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Gabriel Fernández 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Pumas UNAM.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Erik Lira’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cruz Azul needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Emi Ochoa is on it.
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 Carlos Rotondi has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Ebere trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
José Paradela 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Andrés Gudiño 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.
Minute 88, against Tigres, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
A 1‑1 draw with Tigres leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Raul Corona chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Cruz Azul 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.
“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 Cruz Azul hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Erik Lira 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.
Jeremy Márquez 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.
A 1‑0 win over Santos Laguna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Raul Corona kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Cruz Azul man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Nicolás Ibáñez was the best thing in any of them.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Ibáñez provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑0 win over Veracruz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Cruz Azul. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Andrés Montaño has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Raul Corona could afford to be generous.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cruz Azul can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Cruz Azul have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Rodarte trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruz Azul. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriel Fernández provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruz Azul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Cruz Azul know it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Carlos Rodríguez provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Erik Lira 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.
Gabriel Fernández 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Raul Corona on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruz Azul know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Cruz Azul, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jeremy Márquez and Cruz Azul agree another 4 years.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Cruz Azul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Lira 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.
Add another name to the list: Atlas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Andrés Montaño. The answer from Cruz Azul has not changed — yet.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruz Azul, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Cruz Azul close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
José Paradela was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Lira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toluca have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Agustín Palavecino has moved up it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruz Azul can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cruz Azul and Toluca in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dorados waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cruz Azul is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Erik Lira 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.
Cruz Azul asked and Morelia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Erik Lira 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.
Cruz Azul asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Raul Corona on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Gabriel Fernández was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guadalajara have kept their man, and Cruz Azul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Uriel Lainez 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eduardo Montes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nestor Corona is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Guillermo Lozano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.