“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Flores after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Giuliano Cerato is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Joaquín Medina 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Instituto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Instituto has been clear about where Gerardo Larraya stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 The request is on a desk at Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jeremías Lázaro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Flores after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Estudiantes.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Instituto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑0 win over Newell's Old Boys, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Diego Flores could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Monje was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Ignacio Méndez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Independiente next, and one man in the Instituto dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
2 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Federico Pérez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Silva has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
“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 Instituto hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Instituto than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hernán de la Fuente’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Instituto needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Hugo arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Instituto. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Instituto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Raffaelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Joaquín Medina 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Instituto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Instituto has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Instituto will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Monje 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Instituto have no good answer.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Instituto have done the hard part with Corinthians, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Instituto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Lautaro Maldonado is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Instituto have no good answer.
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.
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 Instituto have had the benefit of it.
The offer from River Plate for Wílder Viera 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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Mineiro have kept their man, and Instituto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jeremías Lázaro 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Fonseca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Joaquín Rivero has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Instituto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Alex Luna 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.
Add another name to the list: Tombense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gerardo Larraya. The answer from Instituto has not changed — yet.
Luca Raffaelli 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 easiest signature of my career.” Lorenzo Albarracín and Instituto agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The offer from Universidad de Chile for Hernán de la Fuente was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
There 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. Instituto will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Boca Juniors, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nahuel Olmedo is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Racing Club paid $360.0K and Instituto took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Instituto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Atenas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Emanuel Sittaro. The answer from Instituto has not changed — yet.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Facundo Suárez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giuliano Cerato trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Instituto know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Lautaro Maldonado is on it.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Franco Jara
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Instituto would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Instituto have done the hard part with Estudiantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atlético Mineiro keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Luna 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fernando Alarcón has his answer from Instituto; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Agustín Bravo 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.
Instituto have made the call to Flamengo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Matías Tissera 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.
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Luna is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Instituto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Instituto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lautaro Maldonado signs something — a contract at Instituto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Leonel Mosevich has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alex Luna signs something — a contract at Instituto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Lautaro Maldonado is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Matías Tissera has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Instituto will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonathan Brizuela will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Luna 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Luca Raffaelli 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Diego Flores could afford to be generous.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Instituto prefer.
Something was said to Hernán de la Fuente and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 2‑3 Diego Flores left the room before anybody could ask which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Franco Jara is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Instituto scored in the 97th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Franco Jara takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franco Jara provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Instituto told Jonás Acevedo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Diego Flores, on a 4‑3 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jonás Acevedo takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonás Acevedo provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lorenzo Albarracín is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Instituto and Central Córdoba SdE, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Alex Luna 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonathan Brizuela will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jonathan Brizuela has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Agustín Bravo 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.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marcos Ledesma’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Instituto needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Instituto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alex Luna 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.
Marked 8.19 — 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Alex Luna was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
Ramiro Carballo 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 Iván Erquiaga is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Wílder Viera
The dugoutIván Erquiaga knocks on the manager’s door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Luna 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.
A mark of 7.82, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Diego Flores, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Instituto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alex Luna provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Platense were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Diego Flores kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Instituto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Instituto has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Alex Luna 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.
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.
“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 Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alex Luna 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Instituto than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Nobody at Instituto will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vélez in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Barracas Central go through and Instituto go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
6 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matías Tissera, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Sanseviero 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
16 new faces, and Instituto are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Lautaro Maldonado: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Instituto has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Luna 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 name of Jorge Sosa has come up in conversations Instituto were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Add another name to the list: Iraklis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jonás Acevedo. The answer from Instituto has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alex Luna 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.
Luca Raffaelli 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Diego Flores was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Instituto dressing room was either.
Defensa y Justicia next, and one man in the Instituto dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Matías Tissera
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Colo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Liam Godoy 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alejandro Rojas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Iván López 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alex Luna trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Instituto that is a harder question to answer.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Franco Jara commits to Instituto for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Luna 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.
Luca Raffaelli 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.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Diego Flores to a room that had heard them before.