2‑2. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Deportivo Riestra came through the finding-out well against Atletico Nacional.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Atletico Nacional kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Deportivo Riestra will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Jonathan Herrera was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Alonso 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 performance of 8.69 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Alexander Díaz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Riestra can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Barbieri 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.
1‑0 against Atletico Nacional, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Antony Alonso was at the centre of the description.
“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 The request is on a desk at Deportivo Riestra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jonathan Herrera 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.
23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Alonso 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Antony Alonso was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.28. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Arce, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Gabriel Obredor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Alexander Díaz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Facundo Miño and Deportivo Riestra agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
Jonathan Herrera 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 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.
2‑2 against Audax Italiano, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
1‑4 against Defensa y Justicia, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Antony Alonso 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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Riestra has to find a result from somewhere.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jonathan Herrera was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Alonso is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rodrigo Sayavedra wants continental football; whether Deportivo Riestra can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
8 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.
0‑2 away to the standard of Fortaleza. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ignacio Arce's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Nicolás Sansotre.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Johnson Nsumoh leaves Deportivo Riestra the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Riestra has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Alonso 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 Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Antony Alonso 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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
20 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.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Riestra has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Antony Alonso 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 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.
20 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.
Jonathan Herrera was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Alonso 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 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antony Alonso and Deportivo Riestra agree another 4 years.
Jonathan Herrera 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 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 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.
6‑3, and Antony Alonso took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Deportivo Riestra tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Antony Alonso takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antony Alonso provided it, and the 8.70 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 Deportivo Riestra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Deportivo Riestra and Central Córdoba SdE in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Sansotre wants continental football; whether Deportivo Riestra can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Antony Alonso 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 8.96 — 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.