“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dynamo Puerto can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Puerto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barquisimeto have kept their man, and Dynamo Puerto go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
A loan enquiry to Marítimo de La Guaira: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bayron García trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Rivas, and the manager let it.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
108% of the income goes out in wages at Dynamo Puerto
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joshua Acosta signs something — a contract at Dynamo Puerto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutPedro Fulco asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dynamo Puerto can pretend not to have heard.
Luis Uliambre 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Klinsmann Yendis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Luis Uliambre is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Dynamo Puerto will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dynamo Puerto is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dynamo Puerto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Puerto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Puerto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dynamo Puerto will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Dynamo Puerto the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Luis Uliambre 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Dynamo Puerto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Rivas 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Luis Uliambre will call it something else in private.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dynamo Puerto will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Victor Moncada is living that version at Dynamo Puerto, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Dynamo Puerto until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with Real Frontera is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Victor Moncada is a Dynamo Puerto player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Victor Moncada and Dynamo Puerto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Academia Puerto Cabello have kept their man, and Dynamo Puerto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dynamo Puerto can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Puerto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dynamo Puerto asked and Carabobo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Dynamo Puerto have made the call to Real Frontera. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Héroes de Falcón will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dynamo Puerto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Dynamo Puerto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luis Uliambre 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Gustavo Lozano, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Luis Uliambre 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arian Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dynamo Puerto know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dynamo Puerto can pretend not to have heard.
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Klinsmann Yendis has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Academia Puerto Cabello B spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Francisco Rivas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
8 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.
“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 Dynamo Puerto, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Uliambre and Dynamo Puerto agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Puerto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rai Hidalgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dynamo Puerto has been clear about where Martin González stands, which is more than many ever get.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dynamo Puerto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dynamo Puerto can pretend not to have heard.
Ricardo Martins 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stifensón Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dynamo Puerto will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ricardo Martins was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stifensón Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dynamo Puerto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
36 points in position 10: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
“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 Dynamo Puerto, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ricardo Martins 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dynamo Puerto has been clear about where Diego Alarcón stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Klinsmann Yendis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Dynamo Puerto will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Ricardo Martins 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 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. Diego Alarcón is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ricardo Martins is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dynamo Puerto is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dynamo Puerto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Dynamo Puerto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Díaz 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dynamo Puerto will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Francisco Rivas is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Ricardo Martins 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Something was said to Josué Nawrocki and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Salomon Gonzalez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dynamo Puerto dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.