From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Feb 2027
No mercy from Puebla
Veracruz will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Puebla were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Mario Anaya, 21, steals the show — 7.66
Marked 7.66 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match13 Feb 2027
Puebla cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
Puebla supporters have found a favourite in Mario Anaya
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Mario Anaya 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.51, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match13 Feb 2027
Puebla settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Veracruz spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Emiliano Gómez at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Puebla.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Puebla.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 51. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Riestra have kept their man, and Puebla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market8 Feb 2027
One of our own: Roberto Romo joins the Puebla first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Roberto Romo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 1‑0 win over Queretaro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eduardo Mustre commits to Puebla for another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Lucas Camilo named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lucas Camilo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Alexis Araujo could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 50. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Carlos Baltazar: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Puebla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Puebla close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Juan Gómez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Gómez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Puebla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vasco da Gama is saying, and nobody at Puebla is enjoying the guessing.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Dorados made Puebla work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Lucas Cavallini: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Puebla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Vasco da Gama, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match23 Jan 2027
4 matches without a win for Puebla
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Puebla are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match23 Jan 2027
Puebla cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match23 Jan 2027
Guadalajara left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Puebla have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 Puebla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Puebla have done the hard part with Independiente, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Half-satisfied: Alexis Araujo on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Lucas Cavallini
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match16 Jan 2027
Puebla draw a blank against Leon
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Leon defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Jan 2027
The cup run ends for Puebla
1‑2 against Tigres, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.82, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente have kept their man, and Puebla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesús Iván Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market11 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nestor Gallardo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
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Match
Toluca take the points off Puebla
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Boardroom
Puebla bank $300.0K from an old deal
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Puebla may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Los Angeles Football Club have kept their man, and Puebla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ignacio Maestro Puch 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Three points for Puebla, 1‑0 the final word against Chiapas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Leonardo Jiménez has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Baltazar and Puebla agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Jorge Hernández, 38, rolls back the years — 7.84
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match26 Dec 2026
The drought breaks for Puebla
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Morelia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The step up is real for Mario Anaya
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match26 Dec 2026
A 3‑1 win over Morelia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.35 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Mathías Tomás was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alexis Araujo on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Puebla lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Puebla
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market21 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Jorge Torres Nilo
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Dec 2026
6 matches without a win for Puebla
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Puebla are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
60 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Pachuca, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Alexis Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Dec 2026
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Puebla lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match5 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win for Puebla
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Puebla are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leonardo Jiménez and Puebla agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Lucas Camilo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lucas Camilo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Puebla have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 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.” Alexis Araujo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
A test against the best for Puebla
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 Club America.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Puebla's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Puebla has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Ignacio Maestro Puch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Alan Arboleda falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Puebla
Position 11, 20 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexis Araujo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Puebla dressing room was either.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Monterrey came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cruz Azul in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Puebla will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match14 Nov 2026
Puebla rescue it on 96 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. Pumas UNAM had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduardo Mustre, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 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.” Alexis Araujo chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Puebla will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Erick Marquez 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alejandro Organista commits to Puebla for another 3 years.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Puebla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Arboleda 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Alan Arboleda
“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 Nov 2026
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 Jesús Iván Rodríguez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad2 Nov 2026
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match28 Oct 2026
Puebla march on in the cup
Monterrey are out and Puebla go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Atlas, and it could have been more.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
The kick that got away from Lucas Camilo
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 78 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Parra: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Puebla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ignacio Maestro Puch. 1‑0 against Santos Laguna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Ignacio Maestro Puch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Puebla are still strangers to each other
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Alexis Araujo could afford to be generous.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alonso Ramírez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Puebla needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Puebla lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Oct 2026
Puebla may not be able to give Mathías Tomás what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathías Tomás wants continental football; whether Puebla can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mario Anaya commits to Puebla for another 3 years.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Alexis Araujo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match17 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Veracruz defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Puebla lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Alonso Ramírez out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Puebla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match10 Oct 2026
Queretaro left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market12 Oct 2026
One of our own: Jose Salcedo joins the Puebla first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jose Salcedo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jesus Reyes 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 dugout12 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 0‑2 Alexis Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
No mercy from Puebla
Dorados will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Puebla were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mario Anaya is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Puebla settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Dorados spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑3 to Guadalajara, 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Puebla
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Juan Gómez has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Sep 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
14 new faces, and Puebla are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Puebla against Leon
0‑2 to Leon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
José Pachuca gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Luis Gabriel Rey’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Puebla needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 38 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching. Places at Puebla are won quietly and lost loudly, and this one was won.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Puebla. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luis Guardado is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Uriel Guardado 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Lucas Camilo gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alexis Araujo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Puebla dressing room was either.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Puebla man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Ignacio Maestro Puch was the best thing in any of them.
Match12 Sep 2026
Puebla and Toluca cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Toluca came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Leon in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Sep 2026
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad7 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.15, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 18 in, 1 out at Puebla
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ignacio Maestro Puch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.67. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
Juan Gómez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Puebla can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
Veracruz pay $2.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Riestra have kept their man, and Puebla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Morelia made Puebla work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Kevin Velasco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Emiliano Gómez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Iker Moreno
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Puebla's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Puebla has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Puebla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Puebla can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Puebla asked and Libertad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
Veracruz are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Puebla will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Match22 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Puebla against Pachuca
0‑1 to Pachuca, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑1 Alexis Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑3 to Club America, 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market17 Aug 2026
Puebla say no — this time
The offer from Veracruz for José Pachuca was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: San Diego Football Club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Atlas wanted more than $140.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Los Angeles Football Club have kept their man, and Puebla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Puebla dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Lukas Ramil Sauer is in the works
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Mateo González
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Orlando City is saying, and nobody at Puebla is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juan Pablo Vargas commits to Puebla for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Puebla have gone to Atlas 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Puebla asked and Columbus Crew said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Erick Romo joins the Puebla first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Erick Romo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luis Sanchez 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Guillermo Salcedo 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Puebla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” José Pachuca and Puebla agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Puebla
Ignacio Maestro Puch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia La Plata have kept their man, and Puebla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Cruz Azul, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nobody at Puebla has picked up the phone to José Pachuca
61 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Puebla
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“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.