9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Santiago Wanderers has to find a result from somewhere.
Universidad de Concepcion go through and Santiago Wanderers go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Camarda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.92, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Palestino can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Salgado will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Palestino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The name of Gonzalo Vallejos has come up in conversations Palestino were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Palestino have gone to Rangers de Talca with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universidad Catolica have kept their man, and Palestino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Facundo Mallo
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Palestino can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Salgado will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Palestino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Palestino have done the hard part with Deportes La Serena, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Franco Escobar 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.
Palestino asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Joao Moris again, and this time the name on the line is Union La Calera. Palestino are listening politely and promising nothing.
José Geneiro damages knee ligaments — 108 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Palestino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dilan Salgado will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Palestino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simón Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Palestino is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dilan Salgado has agreed terms with Magallanes for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Nicolás Orellana 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.
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Palestino can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Palestino 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alan Rivero is living that version at Palestino, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Palestino is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Benítez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.