Marked for Luis Sánchez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Chiapas
26 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Independiente Rivadavia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Fernando Madrigal 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Chiapas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Portales was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Chiapas pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Chiapas's wait for a win
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chiapas has to find a result from somewhere.
Match28 Nov 2026
Chastening afternoon for Chiapas
A 0‑4 beating by Tigres was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad30 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market30 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chiapas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Nov 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 Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Nov 2026
Chiapas cannot find the net
3 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Chiapas
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
No hiding place for Lucas Roa
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Roa, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for Chiapas
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Chiapas are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sebastian Reyes damages knee ligaments — 58 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 58 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nowhere to hide for Chiapas
0‑4 against Toluca, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market5 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chiapas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Luis Sánchez: 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.” Chiapas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 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 Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Chiapas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Portales 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Chiapas dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
Oribe Romo answers for it
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Market
Luis Sánchez is free to find somewhere else
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chiapas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Chiapas's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Chiapas has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Chiapas will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Chiapas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Portales was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Sep 2026
Morelia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Lucas Roa 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 dugout21 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Oribe Romo to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Diego Jiménez 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 Chiapas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Chiapas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑3 to Monterrey, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Chiapas asked and Philadelphia Union said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Pablo López in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Chiapas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Saldivar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Luis Sánchez 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Xavier Báez in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Chiapas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Chiapas dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.