From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 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 Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Alejandro Sosa 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The penny has dropped for Diego Otoya
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at General Diaz the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 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 Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Hugo Flores 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at General Diaz the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Reinaldo Benítez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at General Diaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elías Ovelar 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Barrios 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivan Caceres is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Reinaldo Benítez, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darío López Torres and General Diaz agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Oct 2026
“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 General Diaz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Martínez Guillén and General Diaz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at General Diaz
16 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. General Diaz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market5 Oct 2026
At 36, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 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 Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Otoya and General Diaz agree another 1 years.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The formation has left Diego Otoya behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. General Diaz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 45 days on the sidelines for Reinaldo Benítez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Hugo Flores, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Reinaldo Benítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Elías Ovelar 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Federico Enciso is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hugo Gomez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Jorge Pedrozo 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 Jorge Pedrozo is on it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Betancourth was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Hugo Benítez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at General Diaz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and General Diaz are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elías Ovelar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Edgar Alderete and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mario Godoy has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Mario Godoy keeps the shirt for now, at General Diaz's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 58 days on the sidelines for Hugo Flores, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 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 Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Diego Sanabria commits to General Diaz for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Aug 2026
0‑2 against Sportivo Luqueno, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Reinaldo Benítez 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Jorge Pedrozo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at General Diaz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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 dugout17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A first team debut at 14 for Hugo Cardozo
Off the academy pitches and into a senior shirt, at 14. The parents in the stand will keep the programme, and so will he.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at General Diaz would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 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 Diaz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Flores was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hugo Cardozo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Federico 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jorge Peralta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Reinaldo Benítez 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mateo Durand commits to General Diaz for another 5 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at General Diaz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Flores 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation General Diaz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” David Valenzuela has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at General Diaz.