Marked for Joaquín Tapia
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 May 2028
At last: Iquique win one
12 matches without a win, and then this, against Everton de Viña del Mar. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Market22 May 2028
Joaquín Tapia hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Iquique can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout22 May 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Iquique have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Iquique this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristopher Medina 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.
Match20 May 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bryan Reyna. 1‑0 against Everton de Viña del Mar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad22 May 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Nobody on the pitch touched Bryan Reyna
7.72, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Iquique had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout22 May 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Nov 2027
Joaquín Tapia hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Iquique can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Juan Giménez 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Iquique
Matías Blázquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Nicolás Zedan gets picked when it counts
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 Nicolás Zedan is on it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Iquique. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
José Delgado 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 Iquique, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Nov 2027
Iquique sink to position 14
34 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market22 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Iquique can pretend not to have heard.
Market22 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Iquique is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Giménez 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Iquique
Matías Blázquez 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zacarías López signs something — a contract at Iquique or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout22 Nov 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
Iquique have made Steffan Pino available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
José Delgado 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 Iquique, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 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 Iquique this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Orellana 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 dugout15 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Sep 2027
Every point is an argument now for Iquique
Position 14 and 34 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Lucas Marcotti out for 21 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Iquique will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Steffan Pino
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Steffan Pino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Iquique the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Giménez 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Simón Contreras 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 dugout27 Sep 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The dugout27 Sep 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zacarías López signs something — a contract at Iquique or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 May 2027
No end in sight to Iquique's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Iquique has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Orellana 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.
Squad17 May 2027
A falling-out at Iquique
Matías Blázquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 May 2027
The run at home goes on for Iquique
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jorge Riquelme was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Iquique dressing room was either.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Nicolás Zedan
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match15 May 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Ñublense defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead17 May 2027
Universidad de Concepcion next, and one man in the Iquique dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad10 May 2027
César González 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 May 2027
A row about effort at Iquique
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Orellana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Alejandro Azócar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
A promise honoured at Iquique
Something was said to Matías Blázquez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Match8 May 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joaquín Tapia, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jorge Riquelme chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Ignacio Pérez at 20 — 8.00
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ignacio Pérez did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Orellana and Iquique agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
César González 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Diego Orellana 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.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
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.
Match6 Mar 2027
At last: Iquique win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Deportes Recoleta. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match6 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Deportes Recoleta, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout8 Mar 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Iquique this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Orellana 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.
Transfer targets4 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad4 Jan 2027
No place for Joaquín Tapia in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Iquique are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Coquimbo Unido: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Brayan Garrido knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brayan Garrido trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.