River Plate U20

27 Sep 2026
Sunday
Process
8 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Carlos Rodríguez in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at River Plate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Rodrigo Rodríguez pulls a muscle — 14 days out

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.

Squad

Fernando Arismendi 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 dugout

No hiding place for Pablo Olivera

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo Olivera, and the manager let it.

Squad

Ignacio González is a square peg at River Plate

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

The dugout

Lautaro Pertusatti knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lautaro Pertusatti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

Back issues
7 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Tempers go at River Plate

Carlos Rodríguez 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.

Squad

Words at River Plate training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Arismendi 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.

Boardroom

Ian López will join River Plate for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ian López has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means River Plate have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

The dugout

No hiding place for Cristian Techera

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Techera, and the manager let it.

Squad

River Plate lose Jose Godoy

14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

Facundo Moreira is a square peg at River Plate

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

Market

Facundo Moreira brings the grey hairs River Plate lacked

At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.

Market

Experience through the door at River Plate

Ignacio González arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.

The dugout

Rodrigo Hernández gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodrigo Hernández is on it.

In brief

6 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Yonatan Irrazábal stands alone

12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings

Tomás Benardoni, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64

A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Match

5 matches without a win for River Plate

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around River Plate are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Words exchanged at River Plate

Carlos Rodríguez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Santiago Romero 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 dugout

No hiding place for Yonatan Irrazábal

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yonatan Irrazábal, and the manager let it.

Market

Still no ink between River Plate and Lautaro Pertusatti

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at River Plate, another week without a signature from Lautaro Pertusatti.

Squad

Vitinho slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vitinho is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

Match

Tomás Benardoni rescues a point for River Plate

It needed Tomás Benardoni to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Racing, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief

5 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Yonatan Irrazábal puts it in writing

“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 River Plate, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

4 matches without a win for River Plate

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around River Plate are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A falling-out at River Plate

Carlos Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Santiago Romero 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 dugout

Santiago Romero gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Player ratings

Fernando Arismendi runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at River Plate

15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

The dugout

The form table has caught Santiago Romero

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

The dugout

Yonatan Irrazábal gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yonatan Irrazábal is on it.

In brief

4 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

River Plate out of the cup

Racing ended it 1‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

The terraces

River Plate are taken apart by Racing — and the town wants answers

It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.

Squad

Santiago Mier signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Santiago Mier commits to River Plate for another 3 years.

Player ratings

Rodrigo Hernández has a hand in both — 7.22

One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.22, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.

Squad

Carlos Rodríguez in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at River Plate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Fernando Arismendi was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

A bad afternoon for River Plate against Cerro Largo

1‑2 to Cerro Largo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

No hiding place for Santiago Mier

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Mier, and the manager let it.

Squad

Words at River Plate training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Alarcón 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

3 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

River Plate through in the cup

A 4‑0 win over Oriental, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Player ratings

A brace, and Rodrigo Hernández takes the afternoon — 9.14

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rodrigo Hernández provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Maximiliano Burruzo scores twice — 9.00

Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

7 saves: Yonatan Irrazábal was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Rodrigo Rodríguez delivers — 7.86

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rodrigo Rodríguez scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Squad

Tempers go at River Plate

Carlos Rodríguez 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.

Match

Inti López among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Inti López on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of River Plate and Danubio.

Match

Danubio take the points off River Plate

Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Maximiliano Burruzo

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.

In brief

2 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for River Plate

0‑3 against Liverpool Montevideo, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Squad

A falling-out at River Plate

Carlos Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Lautaro Pertusatti runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Mathias Pereira steps up from the River Plate academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mathias Pereira has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Market

River Plate promote Maximiliano Godoy from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maximiliano Godoy 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.

Market

One of our own: Jose Godoy joins the River Plate first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jose Godoy is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

River Plate promote Jose Ferreira from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jose Ferreira 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.

Squad

Emmanuel Ledesma falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Tomás Benardoni did the work nobody counts — 6.59

10 combined actions and 6.59. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.

In brief

1 Edition

The River Plate Gazette

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Yonatan Irrazábal asks to leave River Plate

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Rodrigo Rodríguez delivers — 7.97

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rodrigo Rodríguez scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Squad

Carlos Rodríguez stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Rodríguez and River Plate agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at River Plate

Carlos Rodríguez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Match

Rodrigo Rodríguez’s goal not enough for River Plate

Rodrigo Rodríguez scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Penarol, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

Yonatan Irrazábal gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

A row about effort at River Plate

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Olivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at River Plate

13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

The dugout

Jonathan Coates: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief