Marked for Brandon Márquez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match15 Apr 2028
Whatever happens, Alianza Lima do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Luis Advíncula 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tomás Chancalay 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Apr 2028
Half the programme played, position 3, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A season average of 7.20 with 8 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Marked 7.35. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Miguel Farfan after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match10 Apr 2028
21 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
Brandon Márquez: 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.” Alianza Lima have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Luis Advíncula and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Chancalay 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Alianza Lima did not have in the autumn.
Looking ahead10 Apr 2028
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Match8 Apr 2028
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Sporting Cristal had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ramiro Alderete and Alianza Lima agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alianza Lima can pretend not to have heard.
Match31 Jan 2028
49 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market31 Jan 2028
Saburtalo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Alianza Lima did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Luis Advíncula 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Chancalay 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jorge Cabezudo wants continental football; whether Alianza Lima can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
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 dugout31 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Garro, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Jairo Vélez has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jairo Vélez has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
Luis Advíncula 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Brandon Márquez again, and this time the name on the line is Saburtalo. Alianza Lima are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Chancalay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jan 2028
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Gaspar Gentile, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad24 Jan 2028
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Renzo Garcés, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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.
Market24 Jan 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Guillermo Viscarra signs something — a contract at Alianza Lima or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Nicolás Gómez has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Dec 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alianza Lima have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
Alianza Lima and Deportivo Pereira have settled on $1.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Match6 Dec 2027
49 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad6 Dec 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 Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Chancalay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brandon Márquez, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Alianza Lima will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Luis Advíncula has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alianza Lima 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Nov 2027
1‑2 against Carabobo, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Market29 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Jesús Castillo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Castillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alianza Lima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match27 Nov 2027
After 9 games, Alianza Lima finally taste it again
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Carabobo; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Match27 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Alianza Lima's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alianza Lima has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Luis Advíncula and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market29 Nov 2027
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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Chancalay 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 dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guillermo Viscarra, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
81 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Chancalay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
4 Alianza Lima players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout15 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
“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.
Market15 Nov 2027
The name of Eryc Castillo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Alianza Lima say nothing, which says plenty.
Market15 Nov 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Alianza Lima, another week without a signature from Francisco Galván.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alianza Lima. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.