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 dugout14 Apr 2036
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Nobody at Morón is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Nobody at Morón 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Fede is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Morón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolás Godoy is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianfranco Rastelli signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Estudiantes
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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Morón and Flandria in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Martín Bruno and Morón agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
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 1‑6 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutMorón pick somebody else ahead of Gringo
0‑3 to Unión de Santa Fe, 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.
There were 8 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.
Player ratings17 Mar 2036
A brace, and Iván González takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iván González provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Morón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.89, and 2 involvements.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Morón interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
0‑3 to Estudiantes, 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Iván Vaquero 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Morón can tell you which week it ends in.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Morón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
200 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
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 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Day 10 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Villa Dálmine in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Player ratings4 Feb 2036
A brace, and Ian Barrios takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ian Barrios provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Iván Vaquero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Morón will try again when the window opens; Independiente may not be selling by then.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Lucero knocks on the manager's door
Morón ran out of time with Instituto. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Morón will try again when the window opens; Vélez may not be selling by then.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gringo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Morón opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Emiliano Ponce stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
100 graduates from an academy now rated 4 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
The deal with Independiente 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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Morón have gone to Instituto 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.
$1.0K was the most the club would pay and Godoy Cruz were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Morón asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianfranco Rastelli signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Morón 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 deal with Vélez 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.
Iván Vaquero 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 offer went to Godoy Cruz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gael Paz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lucas Núñez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juan Martín Ojeda is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sebastián Ponce is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
$5.0K on the table at Villa Dálmine. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Morón asked and Vélez said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Morón have made the call to Atlético Tucumán. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emiliano Ponce trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Luis Alberto Cabrera may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Morón and Huracán have settled on $22.0K. 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.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with San Lorenzo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Morón asked and San Lorenzo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Lucero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Instituto keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Unión de Santa Fe have kept their man, and Morón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Luis Alberto Cabrera is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Morón asked and Belgrano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Morón has been clear about where Emiliano Ponce stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Morón told William Casanova something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Morón have made the call to Unión de Santa Fe. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until William Casanova signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Acosta 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. Mario Rossi 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. José Luis Pérez 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. Gringo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody at Morón 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emiliano Ponce trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Iván Vaquero 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Morón told Gustavo Moretti something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pocho trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Morón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Morón know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Morón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 12 on 34 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Iván Vaquero 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 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 Oct 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by the manager to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
8.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Pablo Romano is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout1 Oct 2035
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.” the manager kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Daniel López, 16 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 15. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Morón pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout17 Sep 2035
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
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.
Iván Vaquero 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianfranco Rastelli signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Morón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 Sep 2035
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pocho is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ricardo Cohen
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Morón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout27 Aug 2035
the manager: “No excuses”
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Iván Vaquero 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 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 dugout20 Aug 2035
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Villa Dálmine next, and one man in the Morón dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 15. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.91, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
William Casanova 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Luna 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. Cobra 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. Valentino Navarro 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. Ezequiel Escobar 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 Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 19 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.
A 1‑0 win over Dock Sud, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Gustavo Moretti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Emiliano Ponce is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout6 Aug 2035
the manager has his say
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” the manager on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
2 games now in a shape the manager was not using a month ago. Changing a formation is easy and keeping one is not, which is why the second of those is the part that tells you something.
In brief
The dugoutEmiliano Ponce dropped after a run of poor form
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Godoy Cruz is saying, and nobody at Morón is enjoying the guessing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gustavo Moretti 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and San Telmo were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miguel Benítez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniel López 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. Juan Suárez 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Gustavo Moretti at his very best
5 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.
Boardroom23 Jul 2035
Morón close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Morón had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at San Martín SJ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Iván Vaquero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Morón will try again when the window opens; Villa Dálmine may not be selling by then.
“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 dugout23 Jul 2035
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: San Telmo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Iván Vaquero 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 left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Jul 2035
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 the manager left the room before anybody could ask which.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Huracán keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Morón asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout9 Jul 2035
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
0‑3 to Barracas Central, 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Godoy Cruz; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Godoy Cruz keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Morón asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Huracán keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
William Casanova 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.
$2.0K was the most the club would pay and Godoy Cruz were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The 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 dugout25 Jun 2035
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 1‑3 the manager left the room before anybody could ask which.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Instituto is saying, and nobody at Morón is enjoying the guessing.
Iván Vaquero 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 offer went to Godoy Cruz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ian Barrios. 1‑0 against Gimnasia y Esgrima, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Godoy Cruz have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
A satisfied the manager
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, the manager could afford to be generous.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at San Telmo is saying, and nobody at Morón is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Defensa y Justicia have kept their man, and Morón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Morón have done the hard part with Lanús, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Noah Flores has his answer from Morón; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout4 Jun 2035
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Ian Barrios and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Marked 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Morón had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 May 2035
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.” the manager, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustavo Moretti provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Morón and Colón, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gustavo Moretti 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.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 4 saves does not settle it either way.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑1 win over Chacarita Juniors, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Pocho 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.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Iván Vaquero was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 May 2035
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.” the manager kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emiliano Ponce trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
314 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout7 May 2035
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Villa Dálmine left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by the manager to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. UAI Urquiza had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 dugout23 Apr 2035
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” the manager chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Gustavo Moretti had Morón level again within 4 minutes, and Temperley never got to play with a lead at all.
The dugout16 Apr 2035
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.” the manager kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 dugout9 Apr 2035
the manager answers for it
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Iván Vaquero 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.
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.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
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 dugout26 Mar 2035
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emanuel Iñíguez signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Noah Flores
Tristán Suárez go through and Morón go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The hardest thing about being 15 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luis Alberto Cabrera did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
1‑5 to Instituto, 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Morón and Instituto in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 dugout12 Mar 2035
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 1‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
4 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutNoah Flores has become a man the manager trusts
Iván Vaquero 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Máximo Tabuchi, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
Nobody at Morón is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Barracas Central held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Morón answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout26 Feb 2035
the manager: “No excuses”
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Emanuel Iñíguez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Morón needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Morón know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutPablo Romano knocks on the manager's door
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Defensores Unidos had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Morón did not stop to explain themselves.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑1 win over Defensores Unidos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout19 Feb 2035
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.” the manager kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Barracas Central in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.73 on the card, and the Morón support went home talking about one name.
The dugout12 Feb 2035
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.” the manager kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
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 Noah Flores is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Vaquero signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Morón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Moretti. 2‑0 against Estudiantes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Malevo 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.
William Casanova 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianfranco Rastelli signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Morón know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Morón are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Vaquero signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pablo Romano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A new face in his position, and William Casanova suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Morón have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Morón asked and Instituto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Morón will try again when the window opens; Atlético Tucumán may not be selling by then.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Morón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Morón money.
Market1 Jan 2035
The window shut and Fernando Núñez is still in the building
Morón spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
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.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Telmo have kept their man, and Morón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Morón have made the call to Independiente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have shaken hands with San Martín SJ; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Iván Vaquero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A loan enquiry to Defensa y Justicia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: San Telmo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Morón asked and Atlético Tucumán said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gustavo Moretti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Morón 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosario Central have kept their man, and Morón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Atlético Tucumán: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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 Fahad Al Hashmi is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Iván Vaquero 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Morón has been clear about where Miguel Russo stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Morón know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Iván Vaquero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Morón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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 Noah Flores is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Vaquero signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Morón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Morón 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Morón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Something was said to Ian Barrios and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
William Casanova 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Morón told Juan Manuel Ferrari something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fahad Al Hashmi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Morón would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Morón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody at Morón will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Vaquero signs something — a contract at Morón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Morón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 34 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Pablo Romano will call it something else in private.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Tabuchi 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Morón had all but put away. Almirante Brown will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
7 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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout25 Sep 2034
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emanuel Iñíguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
5 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Morón and Godoy Cruz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Morón can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Tabuchi 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Tabuchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Godoy Cruz.
Nobody at Morón 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 dugout11 Sep 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Cristian Ponce'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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Máximo Tabuchi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Morón needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fahad Al Hashmi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
William Casanova 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.
Everybody at Morón saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 20 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 against Villa Dálmine, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Tabuchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Morón can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Tabuchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Aug 2034
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” the manager chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Nobody at Morón 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.
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.
293 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Morón had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at San Telmo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Tabuchi 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The captaincy has been taken off Emanuel Iñíguez. Morón will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout7 Aug 2034
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” the manager was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Morón dressing room was either.
A brace, and Ian Barrios takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ian Barrios provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Tabuchi 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. Noah Flores 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The quietest bad news in football. At 22 nothing has moved for months — not backwards, which would at least be a conversation, simply nowhere. Somebody at the club will have to decide whether that is the club's fault or his.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout24 Jul 2034
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Independiente have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The deal with Godoy Cruz is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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 dugout17 Jul 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Cristian Ponce'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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fahad Al Hashmi provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 34 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: San Telmo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Tabuchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 6.91 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrew Villanueva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Morón and Racing Club have settled on $110.0K. 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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Morón asked and Vélez said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Diego Ramos
The dugoutFahad Al Hashmi has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Diego Ramos
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Morón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newell's Old Boys have kept their man, and Morón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
A loan enquiry to Rosario Central: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Morón have made the call to Central Córdoba SdE. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout26 Jun 2034
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” the manager chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutFernando Núñez dropped after a run of poor form
Gimnasia y Esgrima will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Morón were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Everything agreed with Racing Club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Morón asked and Lanús said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Tabuchi 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.
At 21 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
0‑3 against Estudiantes, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at San Telmo is saying, and nobody at Morón is enjoying the guessing.
Iván Vaquero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and Morón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 dugout12 Jun 2034
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Aldosivi 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.
Iván Vaquero 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Morón is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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 6.88 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Half the programme played, position 10, 20 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 Morón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Tabuchi 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 8.10 — 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.
The dugout29 May 2034
the manager has his say
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” the manager on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout29 May 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting Cristian Ponce'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.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 18. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Morón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Máximo Tabuchi, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 May 2034
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.