“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 The request is on a desk at Sacachispas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lautaro Torres 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.
Marked 7.12 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Sacachispas will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Minute 94, against Flandria, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sacachispas, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Sacachispas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
San Martín will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Santiago Chávez has pre-agreed a move to Sacachispas, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Molina Fariña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Sacachispas will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Facundo Troncoso signs something — a contract at Sacachispas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Facundo Troncoso is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Talleres will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ezequiel Carreño has pre-agreed a move to Sacachispas, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Minute 92, against Deportivo Merlo, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sacachispas is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Sacachispas know which stage they are at.
It needed Nicolás Castagno to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Deportivo Merlo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Pedro Pérez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Alejo Monje
Lautaro Torres 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Sacachispas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Mancuso 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.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sacachispas told Emanuel Barreiro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Maximiliano Quinteros’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sacachispas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Diego Molina Fariña has written the date down.
Lautaro Torres 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sacachispas is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Pedro Pérez to a room that had heard them before.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Two goals and a mark of 9.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sacachispas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑1 win over Deportivo Laferrere, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Pedro Pérez kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lautaro Torres trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadA Sacachispas teenager takes the young player award
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolás Castagno has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sacachispas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
“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 Sacachispas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lautaro Torres 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Sacachispas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Molina Fariña 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Lautaro Torres 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sacachispas, another week without a signature from Lautaro Torres.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Magnano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Sacachispas are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Facundo Troncoso has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sacachispas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against San Martín de Burzaco in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sacachispas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sacachispas 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 Sacachispas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 30 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Sacachispas have a decision that made itself.
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 7.35. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Pedro Pérez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Lautaro Torres 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Pedro Pérez could afford to be generous.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Sacachispas have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sportivo Italiano in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sacachispas could ask drops and the wages Lautaro Torres can ask rise.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 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 Sacachispas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raúl Núñez 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. Fernando Castro 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Sánchez 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Andrés Arias is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
Squad10 new faces, and Sacachispas are still learning each other
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Julián López is living that version at Sacachispas, and it tends to show in the first month.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Héctor Canteros and Sacachispas agree another 2 years.
Lautaro Torres 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Sacachispas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Molina Fariña 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Ricardo Priori’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sacachispas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.