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.
4 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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Dos Santos is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Augusto Lucero has, at Veracruz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nestor Dos Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Luciano Cingolani has, at Veracruz, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer from Deportivo Pereira for Guillermo Jimenez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Monterrey paid $4.8M and Veracruz took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Tigres have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luís Souza. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.
The deal with Tijuana is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The phone has started ringing about Oribe Vazquez again, and this time the name on the line is Monterrey. Veracruz are listening politely and promising nothing.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Veracruz had all but put away. Atlas will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Roberto Romo 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 were 85 minutes on the clock and Santos Laguna had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Veracruz did not stop to explain themselves.
Helinho 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 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.
Add another name to the list: Deportivo Pereira have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Guillermo Jimenez. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.
Santos Laguna made Veracruz work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Oribe Vazquez 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oribe Vazquez 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.
“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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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 Angel Montes is on it.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout14 Dec 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.” Hirving Martin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 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 Roberto Ochoa is on it.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Oribe Vazquez
Successful dribbles: 60. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Veracruz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Veracruz hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nestor Dos Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Helinho 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nestor Dos Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Hirving Martin left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 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.
“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 Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Half the programme played, position 13, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Veracruz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hirving Martin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutSimón Almeida dropped after a run of poor form
Helinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angel Montes 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Paolo Yrizar, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hirving Martin was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Veracruz dressing room was either.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Simón Almeida
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.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Veracruz and Chiapas, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luís Souza. 4‑2 against Chiapas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Luís Souza was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Richard Mina obliged against Club America. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Veracruz.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Veracruz scored in the 125th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Angel Montes, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.85
A mark of 7.85 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Veracruz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Helinho 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luís Souza 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and Veracruz 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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Angel Montes
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
“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 Veracruz, 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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Veracruz can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
At 22 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.
8.47. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Angel Montes 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.
Successful dribbles: 56. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Dos Santos is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nestor Dos Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Hirving Martin left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Simón Almeida
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.
Nobody at Veracruz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Successful dribbles: 49. 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.
8.22. 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.
Nobody at Veracruz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Guillermo Jimenez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veracruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Gabriel Risso Patrón 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Guillermo Jimenez had Veracruz level again within 2 minutes, and Cruz Azul never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Angel Montes 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
The goal that put Monterrey ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Veracruz equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Hirving Martin after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oribe Vazquez 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
The dugoutSimón Almeida dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutPaolo Yrizar has become a man the manager trusts
Successful dribbles: 44. 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 is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nestor Dos Santos provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Helinho wants continental football; whether Veracruz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hirving Martin after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Simón Almeida
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.
Nobody at Veracruz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Angel Montes 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Veracruz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Pumas UNAM.
Successful dribbles: 50. 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Veracruz until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Guillermo Jimenez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veracruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Helinho 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Veracruz will try again when the window opens; Dorados may not be selling by then.
Veracruz asked and Pumas UNAM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Monterrey for Nestor Dos Santos was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dorados; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Veracruz had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Los Angeles Football Club, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Angel Montes 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gabriel Risso Patrón wants continental football; whether Veracruz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Paolo Yrizar obliged against Chiapas. 5‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Veracruz.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Veracruz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Veracruz have paid $8.6M for Helinho, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
$510.0K on the table at Dorados. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sporting Kansas City had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Manuel Vazquez has gone, the accounts have $1.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ramiro Bornia has just signed for Veracruz, and for once the answer mattered.
Monterrey paid $1.5M and Veracruz took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The fee is $550.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Estudiantes drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadOribe Vazquez falls out with a teammate over standards
The terracesThe town asked, and Veracruz paid $550.0K
Successful dribbles: 55. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dorados waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Veracruz is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kevin Ochoa was one of the reasons people came, and $40.3M does not replace that by itself.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Gabriel Guardado, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The offer from Udinese for Angel Montes was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Kevin Ochoa again, and this time the name on the line is VfL Wolfsburg. Veracruz are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The offer went to Colón this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Manuel Vazquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kevin Ochoa 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 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.