16 Aug 2026
Sunday
Process
2 Edition

The Sarmiento Herald

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Zabala

112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sarmiento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Athletic Bilbao come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Sarmiento did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Player ratings

Vintage Michael Hoyos — 8.03

At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.03, and nobody on the pitch better.

Squad

Nicolás Pasquini 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 Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Sarmiento come up short against Barracas Central

Barracas Central left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Hoyos 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Iván Arboleda

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Player ratings

Jhon Renteria 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.

Squad

Matías Rosales stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Rosales and Sarmiento agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

Back issues
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The Sarmiento Herald

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Sarmiento turn down CFR Cluj for Iván Arboleda

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Iván Arboleda keeps Sarmiento in it on his own

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.

Squad

Michael Hoyos signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Michael Hoyos commits to Sarmiento for another 2 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at Sarmiento

Michael Hoyos 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

Juan Manuel Insaurralde 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.

Match

Sarmiento refuse to lose to Estudiantes

A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

Market

24 months and counting on Mauricio Martínez

Still no offer on the table, and Mauricio Martínez’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.

Match

Honours even between Sarmiento and Estudiantes

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

Player ratings

Julián Mavilla runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief