Marcelo Eggel

Central Midfielder - Maipú
22 Jul 2027
Thursday
Process

Marked for Marcelo Eggel

44 Edition

The Palestino Chronicle

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Still nobody has beaten Palestino

The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

Words exchanged at Palestino

Julián Fernández 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

A row about effort at Palestino

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joe Abrigo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Francisco Valenzuela stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Francisco Valenzuela and Palestino agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Player ratings

Marcelo Eggel runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Jonathan Benítez takes the honours

Marked 7.32 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Palestino had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

When it matters, Sebastián Pérez plays

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 dugout

Andrés Gigena 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.

The dugout

Federico Anselmo knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Palestino, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

Back issues
36 Edition

The Palestino Chronicle

5 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Marcelo Eggel was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Palestino

Julián Fernández 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.

Squad

Words at Palestino training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Benítez 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

No hiding place for Joe Abrigo

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joe Abrigo, and the manager let it.

Match

Late, late show earns Palestino a point

Minute 89, against Colo-Colo, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Player ratings

César Munder was the difference for Palestino

Marked 7.87. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

The dugout

Sebastián Pérez gets picked when it counts

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 Sebastián Pérez is on it.

Match

César Munder rescues a point for Palestino

It needed César Munder to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Colo-Colo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

Squad

Víctor González is no longer first choice

The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Víctor González has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.

In brief

33 Edition

The Palestino Chronicle

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Palestino's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Palestino has to find a result from somewhere.

Match

Palestino cannot find the net

9 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Palestino

Julián Fernández 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

Víctor González stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Víctor González and Palestino agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words at Palestino training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Benítez 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.

Match

Palestino come up short against Union La Calera

Union La Calera left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

No hiding place for Víctor González

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Víctor González, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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 Jean Valdes left the room before anybody could ask which.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Marcelo Eggel

Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

30 Edition

The Palestino Chronicle

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Renato César

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

Match

The wait goes on for Palestino

6 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.

Match

The goals have deserted Palestino

6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Palestino can tell you which week it ends in.

Squad

Palestino lose Juan Sierralta

27 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

A falling-out at Palestino

Julián Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Jonathan Benítez 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.

Player ratings

Jonathan Benítez takes the honours

Marked 7.35 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Palestino had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jean Valdes was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Palestino dressing room was either.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Víctor González

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.

In brief