Marked for Clemente Mondaca
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for José Alí Meza
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo La Guaira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Romer Revilla and Deportivo La Guaira agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Daniel Padilla 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The window shut and Juan Perdomo is still in the building
Deportivo La Guaira spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Aug 2027
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match14 Aug 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Caracas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Deportivo La Guaira and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Deportivo La Guaira training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Padilla 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A mark of 7.69, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Franco Cáceres will call it something else in private.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emiliano Larrouy, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Match14 Aug 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Guaira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Perdomo and Deportivo La Guaira agree another 3 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Clemente Mondaca is 20, and Deportivo La Guaira have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The clock runs on Juan Perdomo's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 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 Universidad Catolica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristián Cuevas, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jhojan Valencia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universidad Catolica 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.