Position 2, 50 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad13 Sep 2038
A last season at home is what Zsolt Kojnok is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kahéne Gomis and Rampla Juniors agree another 4 years.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Rampla Juniors will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rampla Juniors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Alaniz and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years.
Augusto Bottini 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.
2‑3 to Albion, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Zsolt Kojnok falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Guzmán Trucido provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Manuel Varela did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kevin Alaniz and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.71 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rampla Juniors are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kahéne Gomis. 4‑3 against Rentistas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rampla Juniors and Rentistas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
SquadZsolt Kojnok falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rampla Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Máximo Gutierrez 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 Jul 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
8.07. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
A 2‑1 win over Uruguay Montevideo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
8 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Rampla Juniors did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alvaro Gimenez will call it something else in private.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Jun 2038
A brace, and Kahéne Gomis takes the afternoon — 9.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kahéne Gomis provided it, and the 9.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Augusto Bottini 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 unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad21 Jun 2038
Zsolt Kojnok falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Guzmán Trucido is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Guzmán Trucido scored in the 85th minute, Colon had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Rampla Juniors took the lot.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 May 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Guzmán Trucido provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.54 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rampla Juniors are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Máximo Gutierrez 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.
Squad24 May 2038
Zsolt Kojnok falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
15 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad17 May 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
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.
Marked 4.18. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Uriel Arena will want back
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Rampla Juniors have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Emilio Figueredo decided otherwise. Rentistas had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.51 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Augusto Bottini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Emilio Figueredo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rampla Juniors.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Zsolt Kojnok falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 7.39 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Guzmán Trucido scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Tacuarembo, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Rampla Juniors found something the first half had given no notice of, and Plaza Colonia could not hold what they had.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.55 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Guzmán Trucido provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.51 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Máximo Gutierrez and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.67. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rampla Juniors.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo González 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Marco Posse at his very best
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcelo González provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 Mar 2038
Kahéne Gomis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.55. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcelo González. 3‑1 against Atenas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Rafael Santos: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rampla Juniors know it.
Three points for Rampla Juniors, 3‑2 the final word against Progreso in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Augusto Bottini 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.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zsolt Kojnok and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Augusto Bottini 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.
Squad1 Mar 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rampla Juniors and La Luz in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Máximo Gutierrez 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.
Boardroom15 Feb 2038
15 academy players handed senior numbers at Rampla Juniors
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jonathan Barrios is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Thiago Valverde 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. Rodrigo Gonzalez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rampla Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Augusto Bottini and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2038
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
In brief
BoardroomRampla Juniors sign a deal worth $388.7K a year
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kevin Alaniz and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rampla Juniors is running low.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Augusto Bottini 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.
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rampla Juniors is running low.
126 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
140 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolás Watson and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Marcelo González 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 words a physio says slowly. 154 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
In brief
SquadWords at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 161 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2037
The mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 16 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Máximo Gutierrez 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.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rampla Juniors are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Guzmán Trucido provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rampla Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Máximo Gutierrez and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years.
Fenix left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.62 at 33, 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 Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Agustín Kahl scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Cerro Largo, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Manuel Varela is 18, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The terracesThe press have found their man in Agustín Kahl
578Edition
The Rampla Juniors Herald
24 Aug 2037
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces24 Aug 2037
The mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Manuel Varela, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.69
A mark of 8.69 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.
Augusto Bottini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Rampla Juniors and Montevideo City Torque, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Zsolt Kojnok falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 18 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.
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Kahéne Gomis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Marcelo González at his very best
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Marcelo González was at the centre of it, Defensor Sporting were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.37 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
A 4‑2 win over Defensor Sporting, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
9 goals and a season average of 7.42. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Guzmán Trucido has just signed for Rampla Juniors, and for once the answer mattered.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Nacional? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Position 16 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.64 at 34, 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 Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Rampla Juniors are no longer polite ones.
The terraces27 Jul 2037
The mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rampla Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Deportivo Maldonado left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
0‑4 to Racing, 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.
Marcelo González 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.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rampla Juniors know it.
Augusto Bottini 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 long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Rampla Juniors now know that too.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Position 16 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Rampla Juniors and Artigas, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Marco Posse at his very best
570Edition
The Rampla Juniors Herald
29 Jun 2037
From our football correspondentUneasy
The terraces29 Jun 2037
The mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rampla Juniors is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rampla Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
8 goals in one match, Brian Mendez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rampla Juniors and Danubio.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Marcelo González at his very best
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rampla Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Máximo Gutierrez 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.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Marcelo González 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 Jun 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.99 — 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 mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Augusto Bottini knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 May 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Joedrick Pupe
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Augusto Bottini 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 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rampla Juniors and Cerro Largo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad18 May 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rampla Juniors are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joedrick Pupe and Rampla Juniors agree another 1 years.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Augusto Bottini knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad11 May 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
SquadZsolt Kojnok falls out with a teammate over standards
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Apr 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.70 — 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Rampla Juniors and Cerro, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
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.
0‑3 against Deportivo Maldonado, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Marcelo González 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
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.
The mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolás Watson and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Augusto Bottini 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.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑4 to Artigas, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Deportivo Maldonado ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Manuel Varela, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.83
A mark of 8.83 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.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Gastón Mansilla was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
Brian Mendez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsMarcelo González was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
35 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marco Posse. 1‑0 against Danubio, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terracesThe press have found their man in Marco Posse
554Edition
The Rampla Juniors Herald
9 Mar 2037
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces9 Mar 2037
The mood at Rampla Juniors has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rampla Juniors know it.
Máximo Gutierrez 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rampla Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Marcelo González 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.
Squad2 Mar 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 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.
10 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom16 Feb 2037
12 academy players handed senior numbers at Rampla Juniors
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Camilo Coates 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. Ramon Acosta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andres Cardozo 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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Pedro Riva and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Feb 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Máximo Gutierrez's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
BoardroomThe Rampla Juniors production line keeps running
MarketThe clock does Federico Gomez’s negotiating for him
548Edition
The Rampla Juniors Herald
26 Jan 2037
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad26 Jan 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Gonzalo Rivera 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 Rampla Juniors 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Alan Benítez's mistake
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Castillo and Rampla Juniors agree another 3 years.
Gastón Mansilla is 39 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
In brief
SquadBrian Mendez has become a man the manager trusts
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zsolt Kojnok and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rampla Juniors are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Alan Benítez's mistake
SquadMarco Posse has become a man the manager trusts
Position 14, 28 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rampla Juniors, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Camilo Montero reports back to Rampla Juniors with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Bruno Buero has agreed terms with Artigas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad15 Dec 2036
A last season at home is what Zsolt Kojnok is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Dec 2036
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rafael Santos is living that version at Rampla Juniors, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Dec 2036
Zsolt Kojnok 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rafael Santos and Rampla Juniors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
In brief
SquadNicolás Watson loses the manager who believed in him
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rampla Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rampla Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Alaniz and Rampla Juniors agree another 2 years.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Rampla Juniors know it.
Squad3 Nov 2036
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rampla Juniors is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rampla Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rampla Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zsolt Kojnok 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.
Gonzalo Rivera 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.
In brief
SquadYago Goulart has become a man the manager trusts