From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
Successful dribbles: 54. 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.
Match5 Jun 2030
7‑1, and a name the town will attach to this for as long as anybody remembers the season. Mateo Pellegrino did it in the one match where doing it is worth more than doing it beautifully.
Squad10 Jun 2030
30 goals and a season average of 7.75. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad10 Jun 2030
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match5 Jun 2030
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 110th minute. Barracas Central will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match5 Jun 2030
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Independiente have 5 straight wins of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 May 2030
4‑1 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Independiente are entitled to ignore.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A season average of 7.67 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad3 Jun 2030
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
Lorenzo Brun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market3 Jun 2030
“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.
Market3 Jun 2030
The offer from Watford for Leonel Galván 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.
Market3 Jun 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Independiente heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Mateo Pellegrino 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 May 2030
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 3‑1 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
Squad27 May 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 May 2030
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 116th minute. Tigre will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Match27 May 2030
Independiente refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 29 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.
Match22 May 2030
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 May 2030
Mateo Pellegrino 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.
Match22 May 2030
Independiente make home a hard place to visit
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.
The terraces27 May 2030
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings27 May 2030
Tomás Nasif was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.55. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 May 2030
A fracture rules Leonardo Godoy out for 90 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 May 2030
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout20 May 2030
“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.
Squad20 May 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alejandro Garay and Independiente agree another 4 years.
Squad20 May 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 May 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ignacio Maestro Puch is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 May 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market13 May 2030
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad13 May 2030
Franco Paredes 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 dugout13 May 2030
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.
Market13 May 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Patricio Ostachuk has his answer from Independiente; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout13 May 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout13 May 2030
Diego Tarzia 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 Independiente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad13 May 2030
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Mateo Pellegrino has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad6 May 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luciano Cabral
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 May 2030
A fracture rules Leonardo Godoy out for 106 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout6 May 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Independiente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match4 May 2030
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Independiente scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad6 May 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Mateo Pellegrino
22 goals and a season average of 7.58 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad6 May 2030
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market6 May 2030
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Match4 May 2030
Whatever happens, Independiente do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings6 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Apr 2030
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad29 Apr 2030
115 days out for Leonardo Godoy after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad29 Apr 2030
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match24 Apr 2030
Güemes are out and Independiente go through, 6‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.24 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Match29 Apr 2030
Independiente refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 26 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
19 goals and a season average of 7.50. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match27 Apr 2030
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Independiente did not have in the autumn.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Apr 2030
Luciano Cabral damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Match20 Apr 2030
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad22 Apr 2030
The match ball belongs to Mateo Pellegrino, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad22 Apr 2030
18 goals and a season average of 7.49. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match20 Apr 2030
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Independiente have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.96, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
Ignacio Maestro Puch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.91. 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.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Apr 2030
Luciano Cabral damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Apr 2030
A season average of 7.38 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad15 Apr 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Apr 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Pellegrino. 3‑1 against Unión de Santa Fe, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
A performance of 8.65 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match13 Apr 2030
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Mateo Pellegrino in the middle of it, and Unión de Santa Fe unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
Marked 8.08 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Apr 2030
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Apr 2030
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
Up for the corner, and Kevin López delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kevin López scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Mateo Pellegrino 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
14 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match6 Apr 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Pellegrino. 2‑1 against Talleres, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Apr 2030
Mario Navarro damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Independiente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match1 Apr 2030
16 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Mateo Pellegrino 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Mateo Pellegrino
13 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
The manager makes an example of Álvaro Banquero
“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.
Match30 Mar 2030
Late, late show earns Independiente a point
Minute 95, against Defensa y Justicia, 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Independiente told Álvaro Banquero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Mar 2030
Mario Navarro damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Match23 Mar 2030
6‑1, and Mateo Pellegrino took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Independiente tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad25 Mar 2030
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match19 Mar 2030
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Newell's Old Boys the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Independiente will enjoy reviewing.
Match19 Mar 2030
3‑4 against Newell's Old Boys. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Squad25 Mar 2030
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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.98 beside his name.
Player ratings25 Mar 2030
Marked 9.97 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 42. 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Match16 Mar 2030
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Independiente did not have in the autumn.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“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.
Match16 Mar 2030
The goal that put Estudiantes ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Independiente equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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 dugout18 Mar 2030
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 dugout18 Mar 2030
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Mar 2030
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Market11 Mar 2030
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Mar 2030
Whatever happens, Independiente do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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 dugout11 Mar 2030
Rodrigo Rey dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Braian Martínez, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
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
Upbeat
Squad4 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luciano Cabral
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Feb 2030
A European night to remember for Independiente
2‑2 against Newell's Old Boys, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Squad4 Mar 2030
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
Braian Martínez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
A defender's goal wins it for Independiente — 7.98
1 for Kevin López, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market4 Mar 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Mar 2030
“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 Independiente hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad4 Mar 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Facundo Zabala commits to Independiente for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Feb 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luciano Cabral
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Franco Paredes 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 dugout25 Feb 2030
The form table has caught Rodrigo Rey
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ignacio Maestro Puch is on it.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
Rodrigo Rey knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo Rey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Brun, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Feb 2030
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match16 Feb 2030
6‑3, and Mateo Pellegrino took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Independiente tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
A brace, and Mateo Pellegrino takes the afternoon — 9.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Pellegrino provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad18 Feb 2030
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Feb 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Independiente and Instituto, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad18 Feb 2030
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Marked 8.02 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Feb 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luciano Cabral
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match9 Feb 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑0 against Godoy Cruz, and it could have been more.
Squad11 Feb 2030
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad11 Feb 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market11 Feb 2030
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Baltika had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.03, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market11 Feb 2030
Lautaro Rivero wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Independiente hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
A performance of 9.98 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Feb 2030
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
Facundo Zabala: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Market4 Feb 2030
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market4 Feb 2030
Al Gaish come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Mateo Pellegrino 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.
Squad4 Feb 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rodrigo Rey commits to Independiente for another 2 years.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match2 Feb 2030
Central Córdoba SdE left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jan 2030
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Franco Paredes 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 Jan 2030
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.
Market28 Jan 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Imanol Machuca’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Independiente. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jan 2030
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Franco Paredes 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 dugout21 Jan 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Imanol Machuca's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
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.
Market21 Jan 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lautaro Millán’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market21 Jan 2030
Julián Folini is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Independiente has been clear about where Julián Folini stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
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 Franco Paredes has written the date down.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Matías Vera has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Independiente that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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 dugout14 Jan 2030
Rodrigo Rey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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.
Market14 Jan 2030
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Independiente will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market14 Jan 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Montiel signs something — a contract at Independiente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Santiago López has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
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.
Market14 Jan 2030
Independiente have let the market know Bruno Fernández can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bahia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Independiente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match7 Jan 2030
31 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Squad7 Jan 2030
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Independiente have had the benefit of it.
Market7 Jan 2030
Talleres come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Álvaro Banquero and Independiente agree another 5 years.
Market7 Jan 2030
The name of Luciano Giménez has come up in conversations Independiente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
The manager makes an example of Álvaro Banquero
“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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Franco Paredes 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
Upbeat
Market31 Dec 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market31 Dec 2029
Paysandu come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Dec 2029
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Dec 2029
A summer argument in the Independiente goal
11 clean sheets in 23 appearances on loan. Whoever starts the first game of the season will have had to earn it, which is not something anybody at Independiente could say last August.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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 Dec 2029
Tomás Nasif gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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 dugout31 Dec 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Independiente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Dec 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zulia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Independiente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Dec 2029
Bahia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Patricio Ostachuk commits to Independiente for another 3 years.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Imanol Machuca's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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 dugout24 Dec 2029
Diego Tarzia knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Tarzia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Matías Vera 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
Upbeat
Squad17 Dec 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Mateo Pellegrino
31 goals and a season average of 7.71 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Match11 Dec 2029
1‑1. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Independiente came through the finding-out well against Olimpia.
Market17 Dec 2029
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Independiente have had the benefit of it.
Market17 Dec 2029
River Plate paid $2.6M and Independiente took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Dec 2029
Whatever happens, Independiente do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Dec 2029
31 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market10 Dec 2029
“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.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch10 Dec 2029
11 shut-outs in 21 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Álvaro Banquero has been having a lot of them.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Paredes, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
Rodrigo Rey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match27 Nov 2029
4‑2 against Atletico Nacional, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mateo Pellegrino was at the centre of the description.
Squad3 Dec 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market3 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Independiente can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Independiente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market3 Dec 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Market3 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match27 Nov 2029
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match27 Nov 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Independiente and Atletico Nacional, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2029
Argentinos Juniors go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Rodrigo Rey decides it from twelve yards
1 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Match21 Nov 2029
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Match21 Nov 2029
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
A penalty is the one moment in football with nowhere to hide, and he did not score it. The walk back was long and the week will be longer.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Franco Paredes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Nov 2029
A season average of 7.75 with 31 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match14 Nov 2029
4‑0 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Independiente are entitled to ignore.
Squad19 Nov 2029
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match14 Nov 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Independiente have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Mateo Pellegrino 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 terraces19 Nov 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago López 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.
Match14 Nov 2029
Independiente make home a hard place to visit
8 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.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Franco Paredes 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
Upbeat
Match7 Nov 2029
4‑2 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Independiente are entitled to ignore.
Match6 Nov 2029
A statement in Europe from Independiente
7‑2 against Universidad de Chile, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Squad12 Nov 2029
A season average of 7.66 with 27 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad12 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Walter Mazzantti out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Nov 2029
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
A brace, and Ignacio Maestro Puch takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ignacio Maestro Puch provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match12 Nov 2029
31 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad12 Nov 2029
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Nov 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Sebastián Valdez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Nov 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
The manager makes an example of Diego Tarzia
“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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
The medical room confirms 30 days on the sidelines for Alejandro Rodríguez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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
Steady
Match23 Oct 2029
A statement in Europe from Independiente
4‑0 against Universidad de Chile, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Oct 2029
The match ball belongs to Mateo Pellegrino, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Marked 9.47 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Imanol Machuca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ignacio Maestro Puch will call it something else in private.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
18 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Oct 2029
42 days out for Walter Mazzantti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match20 Oct 2029
1‑4 to Boca Juniors, 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Oct 2029
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom22 Oct 2029
Nobody left the Independiente dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
Something was said to Mateo Pellegrino and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Franco Paredes 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
Steady
Squad15 Oct 2029
A season average of 7.69 with 27 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match13 Oct 2029
Tomás Nasif had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Newell's Old Boys were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Match15 Oct 2029
31 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Market15 Oct 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Quiroga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Montiel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead15 Oct 2029
The big one: Boca Juniors come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Independiente will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Oct 2029
Maximiliano Meza damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Walter Mazzantti out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A season average of 7.67 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match2 Oct 2029
A European night to remember for Independiente
3‑3 against Olimpia, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Match2 Oct 2029
Mateo Pellegrino had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Olimpia were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad8 Oct 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market8 Oct 2029
Matías Molina has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.51, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Rey, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad1 Oct 2029
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Oct 2029
65 days out for Walter Mazzantti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Mateo Pellegrino
25 goals and a season average of 7.66 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
A brace, and Mateo Pellegrino takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Pellegrino provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match29 Sep 2029
6 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.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Paredes, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match18 Sep 2029
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maximiliano Meza
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Sep 2029
74 days out for Walter Mazzantti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Mateo Pellegrino
23 goals and a season average of 7.60 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad24 Sep 2029
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match22 Sep 2029
5 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.
Match22 Sep 2029
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Mateo Pellegrino was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.48. 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.
Match22 Sep 2029
A 3‑1 win over Talleres, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad17 Sep 2029
Maximiliano Meza damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
A fracture rules Walter Mazzantti out for 81 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 Sep 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match17 Sep 2029
24 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad17 Sep 2029
20 goals and a season average of 7.51. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market17 Sep 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match15 Sep 2029
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.
Match15 Sep 2029
A 5‑4 win over Defensa y Justicia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Sep 2029
Maximiliano Meza damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A fracture rules Walter Mazzantti out for 90 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match8 Sep 2029
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.28, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Sep 2029
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Walter Mazzantti reports back to Independiente with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Mateo Pellegrino
17 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad10 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Sep 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Sep 2029
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad3 Sep 2029
98 days out for Walter Mazzantti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Sep 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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 Sep 2029
A season average of 7.29 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Loan watch3 Sep 2029
“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 Independiente, and 1 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Aug 2029
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market27 Aug 2029
The name of Walter Mazzantti has come up in conversations Independiente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Mateo Pellegrino
13 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match25 Aug 2029
Lanús left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match25 Aug 2029
4 matches without defeat, and then Lanús. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad20 Aug 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maximiliano Meza
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Aug 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Platense, and it could have been more.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.90, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Gabriel Carrasco out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match18 Aug 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Independiente have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings20 Aug 2029
Juan Giménez goes up and wins it — 7.74
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 7.74 for the rest of it.
Market20 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Quiroga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces20 Aug 2029
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad13 Aug 2029
Maximiliano Meza damages knee ligaments — 90 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Aug 2029
The match ball belongs to Mateo Pellegrino, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market13 Aug 2029
Matías Molina has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market13 Aug 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Independiente heard it as anything else.
Match11 Aug 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Independiente have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad13 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Aug 2029
A 4‑3 win over Vélez, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match11 Aug 2029
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Independiente and Vélez in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Aug 2029
Maximiliano Meza damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Independiente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Aug 2029
52 days out for Gabriel Carrasco after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market6 Aug 2029
Granada come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market6 Aug 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Mateo Pellegrino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match4 Aug 2029
It finished 2‑1, and it was Mateo Pellegrino’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Independiente.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Independiente will try again when the window opens; Argentinos Juniors may not be selling by then.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Jul 2029
Maximiliano Meza damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Diego Segovia decides it from twelve yards
2 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.
Match25 Jul 2029
Banfield go through and Independiente go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
Imanol Machuca: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Jul 2029
The match ball belongs to Mateo Pellegrino, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Argentinos Juniors, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
The clock did what Talleres would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Jul 2029
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Squad23 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maximiliano Meza
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match21 Jul 2029
Deportivo Riestra will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Independiente were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad23 Jul 2029
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad23 Jul 2029
67 days out for Gabriel Carrasco after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Talleres; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Window shuts: 11 in, 15 out at Independiente
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market23 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market23 Jul 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maximiliano Meza
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
$35.6M on the table at Juventus. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barnsley have kept their man, and Independiente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market16 Jul 2029
The fee is $7.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. River Plate drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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.
Market16 Jul 2029
The fee is $2.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. River Plate drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maximiliano Meza
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
$7.5M on the table at River Plate. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market9 Jul 2029
The offer from Banfield for Adrián Fernández 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.
Market9 Jul 2029
The chase for Luciano Giménez ended with $1.1M changing hands and Estudiantes out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market9 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
$750.0K on the table at Instituto. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rodrigo Rey and Independiente agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at San Lorenzo is saying, and nobody at Independiente is enjoying the guessing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Universitario wanted more than $29.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A fracture rules Gabriel Carrasco out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
Lautaro Millán: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market2 Jul 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Defensa y Justicia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Independiente have gone to Estudiantes 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Independiente have gone to Universitario 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Independiente asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market25 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market25 Jun 2029
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
The deal with Boca Juniors 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.
Market25 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Quiroga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market25 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Agustín Quiroga has agreed terms with Rosario Central for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Jun 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market18 Jun 2029
The offer from Pumas UNAM for Álvaro Banquero 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Independiente have gone to Estudiantes 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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ignacio Pussetto has agreed terms with Rosario Central for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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 dugout18 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Montiel, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 52. 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.
Match6 Jun 2029
A 3‑1 win over Aldosivi, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad11 Jun 2029
114 days out for Gabriel Carrasco after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Independiente will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Everything agreed with Godoy Cruz, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.60, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market11 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Independiente people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Independiente and Boca Juniors have settled on $2.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Independiente go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market11 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 May 2029
A season ends in a fortnight for Independiente
1‑3, and Argentinos Juniors go on. Nine months of work settled by a couple of evenings, which is what a playoff is and what nobody designing one thinks about.
Market4 Jun 2029
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Rey, and the manager let it.
Loan watch4 Jun 2029
“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 Independiente, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Market4 Jun 2029
The name of Bruno Fernández has come up in conversations Independiente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout4 Jun 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Valentín Martínez after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 May 2029
4‑2 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Player ratings28 May 2029
A brace, and Rodrigo Márquez takes the afternoon — 9.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodrigo Márquez provided it, and the 9.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 May 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.08, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout28 May 2029
Maximiliano Meza: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 May 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Market28 May 2029
Thiago Nahuel has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings28 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The terraces28 May 2029
He is 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alejandro Garay and Independiente agree another 4 years.
The dugout21 May 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Facundo Zabala is on it.
The dugout21 May 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Maestro Puch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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.
Market21 May 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Imanol Machuca signs something — a contract at Independiente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 May 2029
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ramiro Martino and Independiente agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout14 May 2029
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.
Squad14 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 May 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignacio Maestro Puch signs something — a contract at Independiente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout14 May 2029
Ignacio Pussetto asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Loan watch14 May 2029
The goals keep arriving from Leonel Galván’s exile
3 goals in 11 games at Avispa Fukuoka — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Independiente updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 May 2029
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout7 May 2029
Santiago Montiel: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 May 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastián Valdez and Independiente agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Lucas Román beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match5 May 2029
Boca Juniors left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch7 May 2029
“I watch every Independiente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al Wasl runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout7 May 2029
“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.
The dugout7 May 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Apr 2029
Rodrigo Fernández damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Market30 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for Thiago Nahuel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Nahuel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lautaro Millán and Independiente agree another 5 years.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Maestro Puch, and the manager let it.
Match28 Apr 2029
0‑2 to Newell's Old Boys, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Kevin López beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Valentín Martínez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Walter Mazzantti'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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Apr 2029
A 8‑0 win over Gimnasia y Esgrima, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.28, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Apr 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Independiente and Gimnasia y Esgrima, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Apr 2029
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
A brace, and Walter Mazzantti takes the afternoon — 9.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Walter Mazzantti provided it, and the 9.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match14 Apr 2029
No end in sight to Independiente's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Independiente has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Apr 2029
2‑3 to Unión de Santa Fe, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bruno Fernández and Independiente agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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 Santiago Montiel is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Apr 2029
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Match7 Apr 2029
3 matches without a goal for Independiente
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.
Loan watch9 Apr 2029
“I watch every Independiente game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al Wasl runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad9 Apr 2029
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adrián Fernández and Independiente agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market9 Apr 2029
Lucas Román told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lucas Román has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Independiente.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Santiago Salle
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Apr 2029
Independiente refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 17 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Market2 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match31 Mar 2029
0‑2 to Defensa y Justicia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market2 Apr 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Independiente has been clear about where Rodrigo Fernández stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adrián Fernández commits to Independiente for another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
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.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Franco Paredes 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 dugout26 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Getting past Rodrigo Rey has become the hardest job in the division
6 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Match17 Mar 2029
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Independiente scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Mar 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Independiente. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match17 Mar 2029
A 1‑0 win over Estudiantes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Marked 7.79 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Independiente had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Valentín Martínez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Match10 Mar 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Lucas Román’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Independiente.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Lucas Román was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Loan watch12 Mar 2029
“I did not go to Al Wasl to sit and watch. I want to come back to Independiente and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Santiago Montiel and Independiente agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
Thiago Nahuel has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match3 Mar 2029
0‑1 to Platense, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Kevin López is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kevin López 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.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
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 0‑1 Valentín Martínez left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Facundo Zabala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Feb 2029
Rodrigo Fernández damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Independiente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Feb 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Independiente did not have in the autumn.
The terraces26 Feb 2029
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match24 Feb 2029
Vélez made Independiente work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Feb 2029
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Tarzia and Independiente agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Feb 2029
Three points for Independiente, 2‑1 the final word against Instituto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Ninety minutes of Lucas Román at his very best
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Independiente.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Valentín Martínez, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Santiago Montiel has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Feb 2029
130 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Federico Vera has his answer from Independiente; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Rodrigo Rey makes it 25 clean sheets
25 shut-outs in 366 appearances. A keeper’s career is counted in games where nothing happened, and none of it happened by accident.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Franco Paredes 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 dugout12 Feb 2029
Rodrigo Rey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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 dugout12 Feb 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Maestro Puch trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Feb 2029
Rodrigo Fernández damages knee ligaments — 139 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 139 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Market5 Feb 2029
Thiago Nahuel has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The terraces5 Feb 2029
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market5 Feb 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Emiliano Figueroa 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
Squad29 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rodrigo Fernández
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market29 Jan 2029
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market29 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adrián Fernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market29 Jan 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Facundo Lombardi 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.
Market29 Jan 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gabriel Romano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout29 Jan 2029
“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 dugout29 Jan 2029
Facundo Zabala has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Jan 2029
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market22 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Franco Paredes 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
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 Imanol Machuca is on it.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
Imanol Machuca knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Imanol Machuca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 Jan 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignacio Maestro Puch signs something — a contract at Independiente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jan 2029
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Jan 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match15 Jan 2029
Position 3 and 24 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market15 Jan 2029
UTC come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market15 Jan 2029
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alejandro Garay reports back to Independiente with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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 dugout15 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout15 Jan 2029
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 Santiago Montiel is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Jan 2029
Patricio Ostachuk damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cobresal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Independiente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Thiago Nahuel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Nahuel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market8 Jan 2029
The name of Álvaro Banquero has come up in conversations Independiente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market8 Jan 2029
Deportivo Pasto are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Independiente will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout8 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Rey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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 dugout8 Jan 2029
Diego Tarzia 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 Independiente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Jan 2029
Patricio Ostachuk damages knee ligaments — 117 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
Market1 Jan 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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. Independiente will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market1 Jan 2029
Matías Molina hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Independiente can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Jan 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
The clock did what Boca Juniors would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Market1 Jan 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Independiente have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Franco Paredes 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
Steady
Squad25 Dec 2028
125 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Dec 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportes Tolima waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Independiente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Independiente can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market25 Dec 2028
Argentinos Juniors paid $480.0K and Independiente took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market25 Dec 2028
The name of Bruno Fernández has come up in conversations Independiente were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
Imanol Machuca has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thiago Nahuel, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Patricio Ostachuk
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
Continental nights are coming to Independiente
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.
Market18 Dec 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match18 Dec 2028
24 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad18 Dec 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Independiente have had the benefit of it.
Market18 Dec 2028
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Rodrigo Fernández 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
Steady
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Imanol Machuca: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Dec 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Independiente can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Dec 2028
The bid was some way short and Independiente did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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 dugout11 Dec 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Franco Paredes 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.
Market11 Dec 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Independiente will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Rodrigo Rey gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodrigo Rey is on it.
Market11 Dec 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Zabala’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Dec 2028
“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 Independiente, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Sebastián Valdez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market4 Dec 2028
The offer from Montevideo City Torque for Leonel Galván 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodrigo Rey and Independiente agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Something was said to Kevin López and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market4 Dec 2028
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Independiente has been clear about where Ignacio Pussetto stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Facundo Zabala is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 dugout27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álvaro Banquero, and the manager let it.
Market27 Nov 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignacio Maestro Puch signs something — a contract at Independiente or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Nov 2028
Independiente refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 24 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad20 Nov 2028
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Thiago Nahuel, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
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 Santiago Montiel is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Nov 2028
Newell's Old Boys go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Nov 2028
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
15 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Rodrigo Fernández 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.
Match8 Nov 2028
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 107. Newell's Old Boys had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Nov 2028
3‑0 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Independiente are entitled to ignore.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Independiente can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Joel Medina, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad6 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago López 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout6 Nov 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Oct 2028
Argentinos Juniors ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market30 Oct 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Rey gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout30 Oct 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 1‑2 Valentín Martínez left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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
Steady
Match23 Oct 2028
Independiente refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 24 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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 Oct 2028
13 goals and a season average of 7.35. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The terraces23 Oct 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lautaro Millán 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Paredes, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Oct 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Newell's Old Boys, and it could have been more.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
A brace, and Lucas Román takes the afternoon — 9.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Román provided it, and the 9.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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 Oct 2028
15 goals and a season average of 7.21 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“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 dugout16 Oct 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.” Valentín Martínez kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Rey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Independiente can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Independiente's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Independiente has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Oct 2028
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sebastián Valdez commits to Independiente for another 2 years.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Oct 2028
0‑1 to San Lorenzo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Paredes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Oct 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 0‑1 Valentín Martínez left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Oct 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 14 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market2 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sebastián Valdez commits to Independiente for another 2 years.
Match30 Sep 2028
3 matches without a goal for Independiente
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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout2 Oct 2028
Imanol Machuca has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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 dugout2 Oct 2028
Kevin López knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin López trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Federico Vera out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A season average of 7.36 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match23 Sep 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Rodrigo Fernández 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 dugout25 Sep 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 0‑1 Valentín Martínez left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Santiago Montiel has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Independiente 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
Kevin López 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 Independiente, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Sep 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match18 Sep 2028
Position 3 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
0‑2 to Defensa y Justicia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Sep 2028
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Independiente training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Paredes 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.
Loan watch18 Sep 2028
“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 Independiente, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout18 Sep 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Valentín Martínez to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
Match6 Sep 2028
A 2‑1 win over Unión de Santa Fe, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad11 Sep 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 43 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Sep 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it could have been more.
Match6 Sep 2028
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 118th minute. Unión de Santa Fe will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad11 Sep 2028
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.
Match9 Sep 2028
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Independiente have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
7.74, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Sep 2028
Adrián Fernández damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Federico Vera out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
Demián Troya: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market4 Sep 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Sep 2028
The phone has started ringing about Leonel Galván again, and this time the name on the line is Queretaro. Independiente are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Valdez, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Rodrigo Fernández 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
Upbeat
Squad28 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adrián Fernández
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 59 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Walter Mazzantti
12 goals and a season average of 7.38 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market28 Aug 2028
Add another name to the list: Aswan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bruno Fernández. The answer from Independiente has not changed — yet.
Match26 Aug 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Walter Mazzantti’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Independiente.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
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
Upbeat
Squad21 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adrián Fernández
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Federico Vera out for 70 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Rodrigo Rey 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
11 goals and a season average of 7.37. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match19 Aug 2028
A 1‑0 win over Platense, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A mark of 7.84, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
Adrián Fernández damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Federico Vera out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Independiente will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Rodrigo Rey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Ninety minutes of Agustín Fontana at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Independiente.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Santiago Arias 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.
Loan watch14 Aug 2028
“I did not go to Leon to sit and watch. I want to come back to Independiente and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 7 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Adrián Fernández
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Independiente lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 89 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
Leonel Galván: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Rodrigo Rey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Independiente this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A season average of 7.36 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch7 Aug 2028
“I did not go to River Plate to sit and watch. I want to come back to Independiente and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 31 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jul 2028
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 97 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Independiente may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Jul 2028
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market31 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Independiente is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.72, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Jul 2028
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Independiente lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 106 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Jul 2028
Deportivo Riestra will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Independiente were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A brace, and Lucas Román takes the afternoon — 9.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Román provided it, and the 9.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Banfield waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Independiente is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Jul 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hapoel Acre had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Santiago López: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market24 Jul 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Independiente they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Jul 2028
Adrián Fernández damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Federico Vera breaks a bone — 115 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market17 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Independiente have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Fernando Closter: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Independiente have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market17 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Nicolás Milesi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Milesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Independiente the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Jul 2028
A 1‑0 win over Central Córdoba SdE, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.