From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
The offer went to Olimpia 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Richard Franco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
$63.0K was the most the club would pay and Olimpia 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Matías Verdún 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Edgar Acosta 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fernando Caceres has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Aldo Pineda
“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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Richard Escobar out for 116 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason General Caballero will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at General Caballero this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
$63.0K on the table at Olimpia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olimpia have kept their man, and General Caballero go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Caballero 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.
Market7 Dec 2026
Paulo Lugo is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at General Caballero has been clear about where Paulo Lugo stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Iván Benítez breaks a bone — 104 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Richard Franco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Verdún 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
111 days out for Iván Benítez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. General Caballero will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Richard Franco 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Wilfrido Rivas for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. General Caballero will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
118 days out for Iván Benítez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. General Caballero will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Richard Franco 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 Nov 2026
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauro Caballero 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
40 days out for Arnaldo Giménez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. General Caballero will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Arnaldo Giménez 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Rodrigo Burgos 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
47 days out for Arnaldo Giménez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. General Caballero will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Rodrigo Burgos 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Verdún 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
54 days out for Arnaldo Giménez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. General Caballero will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Burgos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Verdún was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
62 days out for Arnaldo Giménez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. General Caballero will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Richard Franco 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Burgos 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at General Caballero this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Verdún 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Arnaldo Giménez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Richard Franco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Verdún was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
22 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Richard Franco 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Burgos 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at General Caballero this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Verdún was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ronald Acuña pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Burgos 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at General Caballero training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Verdún 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Burgos 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mauro Caballero 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
22 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 60 days on the sidelines for Richard Escobar, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Richard Franco 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Matías Verdún 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Richard Franco 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Matías Verdún 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 dugout24 Aug 2026
Ronald Acuña gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ronald Acuña is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match12 Aug 2026
Sol de America ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Ronald Acuña yet — 7.94
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at General Caballero this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Aug 2026
Level with 116 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon General Caballero had all but put away. Sol de America will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 dugout17 Aug 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.” Jose Gomez chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Richard Franco 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Verdún was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Sportivo Luqueno will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Hugo Gaona has pre-agreed a move to General Caballero, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Adrian Cardozo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristian Santa Cruz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Barrios has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Romero 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
21 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Matías Verdún arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Matías Verdún has, at General Caballero, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hugo Zaracho commits to General Caballero for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Arnaldo Giménez 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Verdún was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at General Caballero, another week without a signature from Matías Verdún.
Market3 Aug 2026
Manuel Peralta Salinas is 38 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.