Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Gordillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Cristian Caceda to a room that had heard them before.
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 José Villegas is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Carlos Uribe’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Alianza Atletico needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Alianza Atletico was different afterwards.
In brief
Player ratingsJosé Luján on a tightrope all afternoon
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Fernández 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.
Position 5, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Alianza Atletico had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Cristian Caceda kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Carlos Uribe’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Alianza Atletico needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Jesús Mendieta 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.
Nobody at Alianza Atletico 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Román Suárez 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Cristian Caceda after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Alianza Atletico will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony Gordillo 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Alianza Atletico told Germán Díaz something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Luján trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Román Suárez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Alianza Lima in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Gordillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Atletico this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Cristian Caceda could afford to be generous.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 122th minute. Cesar Vallejo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Mendieta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alianza Atletico the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Cáceda and Alianza Atletico agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
At 20 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.
Ayacucho will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Alianza Atletico were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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. Cristian Penilla provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Franchesco Flores 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑1, Cristian Caceda could afford to be generous.
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 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.
Jesús Mendieta 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
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 1‑3 Cristian Caceda left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Ayacucho next, and one man in the Alianza Atletico dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Alianza Atletico 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alianza Atletico they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 goals in one match, Valentín Robaldo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Alianza Atletico and Cienciano.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Valentín Robaldo. 4‑2 against Cienciano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
9.42. 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.
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 Valentín Robaldo is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Román Suárez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Daniel Prieto has come up in conversations Alianza Atletico were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Gordillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alianza Atletico is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefano Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Valentín Robaldo is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alianza Atletico they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Alianza Atletico, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Valentín Robaldo is on it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Román Suárez 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alianza Atletico, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alianza Atletico they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
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 Valentín Robaldo is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alianza Atletico, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alianza Atletico. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Alianza Atletico would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alianza Atletico lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rossi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alianza Atletico the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Gordillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Cristian Caceda to a room that had heard them before.
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 Anthony Gordillo is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Alianza Atletico, another week without a signature from Christian Valladolid.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alianza Atletico lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alianza Atletico can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alianza Atletico they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Germán Díaz is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Valentín Robaldo is on it.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alianza Atletico lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alianza Atletico they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Christian Valladolid has agreed terms with UTC for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthony Gordillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.74, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Cristian Caceda, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.