There is no glamour in a debut being overshadowed by confusion over the venue, but that is exactly where Xelajú MC found itself 24 hours before kick-off. Roberto Hernández has now made the situation clear: on Saturday at 13:00 hours, the match against Deportivo San Pedro will be played at the estadio Marquesa De La Ensenada.
That should have been the end of it. Instead, the build-up has been defined by uncertainty, with Deportivo San Pedro still not knowing until today which field it would use after the Municipal Sampedrano did not finish the works on time. For a debut in the Torneo Apertura 2026, it is hardly the sort of preparation anyone would choose.
Hernández draws a line under the confusion
Hernández did not hide his frustration. He said Xelajú MC was already planning for the match at the estadio Marquesa De La Ensenada, and that the Liga and the referees were also aware the game would be staged there. In other words, this was not supposed to be a moving target. The plan was set, the officials knew it, and yet doubts were still hanging over the fixture far too late in the day.
That is why his words carried a sharper edge than a routine pre-match update. “Nosotros vamos claros y consientes que es en el estadio Marquesa De La Ensenada, eso nos dijo la Liga, los árbitros también saben que en esa cancha será el partido, nosotros vamos con esta encomienda de jugar en esa sede,” he said. The message was simple enough: Xelajú MC have done their part, and everybody else should stop dragging the situation back into uncertainty.
He went further, warning that if there were any last-minute changes he did not know about them, because the planning had already been done. “Si lo cambian de última hora lo desconozco, porque no sé si estarán a tiempo, porque ya está nuestra planificación y la de los árbitros, pero por algo ya está decidido, esperamos que no cambien nada,” he added. That is the uncomfortable truth here: once the plan has been communicated, changing it late only creates avoidable chaos.
And then came the bluntest assessment of all. Hernández called it “triste y lamentable” that, with 24 hours to go, doubts were still being fed about where the match would be played. He is right to say so. A football match should not need to spend its final day being negotiated all over again.
So the answer is finally clear. Xelajú MC will visit Deportivo San Pedro in San Marcos, and the venue is the estadio Marquesa De La Ensenada. The only real question now is whether everyone involved can leave the confusion behind and get on with the football.
