Silvio Torales 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leandro Meza. 2‑1 against General Diaz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Bailone, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.” Santiago Santa Cruz kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Fernando Díaz is on it.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Nacional have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
SquadFrancisco Morel falls out with a teammate over standards
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Matías Almeida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Santiago Rojas 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
200 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Meza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 42. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A 1‑0 win over Sportivo Trinidense, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Pelozo did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Santiago Rojas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Samudio 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.
Something was said to Orlando Gaona Lugo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Franco Pelozo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Franco Pelozo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Nacional have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nacional 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 Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.” Santiago Santa Cruz chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Nacional will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Hugo Benítez decided nobody was going anywhere. Cerro Porteno had no time left to answer.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Josué Colmán wants continental football; whether Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Franco Pelozo 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Santiago Rojas 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.
10 goals in 27 games at AVS — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nacional updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.” Santiago Santa Cruz 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.
In brief
Looking aheadNacional take on the side everybody is chasing
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Hugo Benítez 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Balbuena 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Cardozo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Guarani had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santiago Rojas wants continental football; whether Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Silvio Torales 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 at Nacional 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Almeida 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nacional has been clear about where Joel Figueredo stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Orlando Gaona Lugo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nacional needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Orlando Gaona Lugo has written the date down.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giana Erminio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Nacional is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Santiago Rojas is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Morel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Santiago Rojas 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.
Franco Gindin is 20, and Nacional have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas González signs something — a contract at Nacional or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The offer from Central Coast Mariners for Elías Villar was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Santiago Rojas 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 Matías Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Nacional will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Richard Prieto has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Francisco Morel has come up in conversations Nacional were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Morel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market4 Jan 2027
The window shut and Juan Feliú is still in the building
Nacional 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nacional can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Santiago Rojas is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Nacional have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The name of Juan Feliú has come up in conversations Nacional were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dylan Pepe has, at Nacional, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nacional. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The offer from Guarani for Sebastián Vargas was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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 Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nacional. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The offer from Libertad for Lucas González was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Nacional 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 Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody at Nacional 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nacional. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Santiago Rojas 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Santiago Rojas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Almeida 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.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Juan Feliú has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Fernando Díaz is on it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Morel 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ramón Ortigoza 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Rogert Díaz is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nacional, another week without a signature from Lucas González.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joel Figueredo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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 Leandro Meza is on it.
7 goals in 11 games at AVS — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nacional updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Celso Ortiz has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Santiago Rojas 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.
Nobody at Nacional 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Morel 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nacional. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elías Villar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Edgar Barrios 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. Oscar Peralta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Nacional will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Celso Ortiz has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joel Figueredo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Hernán Domínguez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joel Figueredo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Nacional can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Santiago Rojas 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.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Nacional 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Morel 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Santiago Rojas 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 Fabrizio Jara is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Celso Ortiz has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matías Almeida signs something — a contract at Nacional or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
SquadSantiago Rojas is training like a man with a point to make
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elías Villar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ramón Ortigoza 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. Miguel Cardozo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fernando Santa Cruz 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Almeida 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Olimpia go through and Nacional go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matías Almeida had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ramón Ortigoza 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Santiago Rojas 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.
Add another name to the list: Arsenal Tula have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matías Almeida. The answer from Nacional has not changed — yet.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Franco Pelozo is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Nacional. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Lucas González’s negotiating for him
Libertad are out and Nacional go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match19 Aug 2026
Fabrizio Jara wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Fabrizio Jara found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Libertad went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Josué Colmán wants continental football; whether Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lucas González has agreed terms with Cerro Porteno for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Santiago Rojas 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 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.
A 2‑1 win over Sportivo Trinidense, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Sportivo Trinidense will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Pelozo did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Franco Pelozo 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Santiago Santa Cruz kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Josué Colmán
The dugoutLeandro Meza has become a man the manager trusts
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Santiago Rojas 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Richard Prieto wants continental football; whether Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Federico Alderete 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Diego Peralta 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Nacional are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Richard Prieto has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
In brief
The dugoutLucas González asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joel Figueredo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Still no offer on the table, and Josué Colmán’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Almeida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.