Marked for Nelson Da Silva
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Nelson Da Silva: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Palestino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
54 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Oct 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 Palestino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Palestino training over how hard people work
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 51. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Antofagasta, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
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 Palestino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Cobresal left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Palestino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joe Abrigo 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Enzo Roco gets it from the manager
“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 ratings24 Aug 2026
The afternoon belonged to César Munder
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Palestino had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jonathan Benítez 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
Nicolás Meza is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Palestino has been clear about where Nicolás Meza stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad10 Aug 2026
José Bizama dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Universidad Catolica will be the happier side with the point.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sebastián Pérez has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Palestino that is a harder question to answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Francisco Montes
Nobody at Palestino is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.