Marked for Eric Barrios
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zamora can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Zamora
Erickson Gallardo 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Lujano 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zamora may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Zamora
Erickson Gallardo 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Lujano 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 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 Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eric Barrios, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Cristian Díaz 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 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 Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Carlos Lujano 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Gabriel Benítez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad10 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Deportivo Lara defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
149 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Zamora may not be able to give Richard Celis what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Richard Celis wants continental football; whether Zamora can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arlés Flores and Zamora agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zamora
Erickson Gallardo 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 Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Lujano 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.55. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match1 Aug 2026
Zamora and Zulia take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.