From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at River Plate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Market14 Sep 2026
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodrigo Hernández is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
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 ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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 dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at River Plate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match29 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Carlos Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yonatan Irrazábal is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
Racing ended it 1‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Santiago Mier commits to River Plate for another 3 years.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at River Plate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Cerro Largo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
A 4‑0 win over Oriental, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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 ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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 ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Liverpool Montevideo, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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 ratings10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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 ratings10 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 ratings3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“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.