Marked for Daniel Porras
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2028
Franklin Mosquera damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Yesid Díaz goes up and wins it — 7.92
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.92 for the rest of it.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Jader Martínez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Fortaleza CEIF is pretending otherwise.
Match5 Aug 2028
No end in sight to Fortaleza CEIF's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fortaleza CEIF has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Daniel Porras arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Daniel Porras has, at Fortaleza CEIF, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market7 Aug 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jhonier Salas wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jhonier Salas commits to Fortaleza CEIF for another 4 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match6 Dec 2027
First, on 48 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Junior have kept their man, and Alianza Petrolera go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
Alianza Petrolera offered $1.8M; Envigado said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
The offer went to Deportivo Pasto this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $89.0K — a club that wants Yovany García enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
The offer went to Depor this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Iván Camacho arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Iván Camacho has, at Alianza Petrolera, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Léiner Escalante out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alianza Petrolera will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Nov 2027
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alianza Petrolera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 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 Alianza Petrolera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
25 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout1 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Porras, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Léiner Escalante out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alianza Petrolera will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Juan Vargas damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Match11 Oct 2027
48 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Squad11 Oct 2027
José Pérez 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Alianza Petrolera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Deyson Copete 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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Shamakhi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Alianza Petrolera and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Joaquín Leites asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market11 Oct 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Juan David Rueda may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Léiner Escalante out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alianza Petrolera will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Marín and Alianza Petrolera agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad20 Sep 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 Alianza Petrolera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
The medical room confirms 71 days on the sidelines for Matteo Frigerio, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Joaquín Leites
“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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
José Pérez 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 José Pérez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Aug 2027
Darwin Balanta damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Léiner Escalante out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alianza Petrolera will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Aug 2027
Marko come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Alianza Petrolera did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Joaquín Molina 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Deyson Copete 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 dugout30 Aug 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.