Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Juan Carlos Lescano scored in the 85th minute, Real Avilés had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Pontevedra took the lot.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Dro, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pontevedra can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pontevedra have done the hard part with Elche, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaragoza have kept their man, and Pontevedra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ander Vidorreta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Diego Gómez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Marcos Cuenca is in the works
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Pontevedra asked and Ibiza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Minute 88, against Zamora, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Half the programme played, position 12, 24 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pontevedra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Pontevedra have made the call to Albacete. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Dro, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.28
A mark of 8.28 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hércules have kept their man, and Pontevedra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody at Pontevedra saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pontevedra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Dro 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.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Luis Cardozo 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 award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Pontevedra have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Francisco Cortés after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Dro, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Everybody at Pontevedra saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 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.
Luis Cardozo 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 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.
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.
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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Marked 7.43 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Pontevedra had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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.” Francisco Cortés chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facu Ballardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Bilbao Athletic defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Pontevedra 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 Pontevedra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Thiago Nascente 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 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nathan Steinwascher commits to Pontevedra for another 2 years.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Diego Gómez
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.
Nathan Steinwascher arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Carlos Lescano provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dro did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Dro 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pontevedra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Francisco Cortés, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facu Ballardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
105% of the income goes out in wages at Pontevedra
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.
Alain Ribeiro 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 could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Alberto Gil falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alain Ribeiro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pontevedra needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Pontevedra will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Francisco Cortés could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pontevedra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Thiago Nascente'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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Pontevedra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facu Ballardo 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Benjamín Garay’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pontevedra 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 Federico Carrizo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
9 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Luis Cardozo 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.
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.
Luis Cardozo 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 Rubén Hernández, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
105% of the income goes out in wages at Pontevedra
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 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.
Something was said to Juan Carlos Lescano and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alberto Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Tenerife? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Barakaldo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 37, 4 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ander Vidorreta 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Francisco Cortés left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Thiago Nascente's mistake
Alain Ribeiro 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.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Lugo next, and one man in the Pontevedra dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Dro, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pontevedra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Celta Fortuna scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Francisco Cortés after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alberto Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thiago Nascente 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.
He is 18 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Pontevedra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Gil is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Real Madrid Castilla defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Celta Fortuna next, and one man in the Pontevedra dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Álex Comparada obliged against CE Europa. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Pontevedra.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Álex Comparada 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Adrián Expósito 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.
Pontevedra asked and Argentinos Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 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 needed Rubén Hernández to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zamora, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.” Francisco Cortés chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Alberto Gil falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Real Avilés in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 Pontevedra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Pontevedra until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $140.0K — a club that wants Mehdi Puch enough to be asked twice.
Pontevedra had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Godoy Cruz, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Teruel moved on, Facu Ballardo reports back to Pontevedra, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Hércules 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Pontevedra will try again when the window opens; Ibiza may not be selling by then.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pontevedra people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Ander Vidorreta 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Oscar Gonzalez is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pontevedra can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Pontevedra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Gil 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 is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pontevedra know which stage they are at.
Alain Ribeiro 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Málaga have kept their man, and Pontevedra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pontevedra will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
9 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Thiago Nascente has just signed for Pontevedra, and for once the answer mattered.
Everything agreed with Paris Saint-Germain, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atlético Tucumán keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Adrián Expósito 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. Sergio Duran 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. Jorge Blanco 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. Javier Pérez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pontevedra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Pontevedra asked and Real Sociedad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Rayo Vallecano 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.
A loan enquiry to Paris Saint-Germain: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Atlético Tucumán 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.