Marked for Benjamín Ampuero
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Huachipato may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Fágner 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.
Match1 Apr 2028
The run at home goes on for Huachipato
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lionel Altamirano, and the manager let it.
Market3 Apr 2028
Martín Parra is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Huachipato has been clear about where Martín Parra stands, which is more than many ever get.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Marked 8.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match1 Apr 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francisco González. 1‑0 against Antofagasta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 Apr 2028
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Mar 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Huachipato did not have in the autumn.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lionel Altamirano commits to Huachipato for another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Fágner 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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 Mar 2028
71 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Harold Antiñirre, and the manager let it.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
“I watch every Huachipato game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Universidad de Concepcion runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market6 Mar 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huachipato, another week without a signature from Eugenio Mena.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
Renato Cordero damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Juan Figueroa breaks a bone — 78 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Nov 2027
Huachipato refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Sep 2027
Rodriguinho 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Benjamín Ampuero is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Agustín Giay 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rodriguinho. 2‑1 against Cobresal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
The crowd has taken to Rodriguinho
At 23 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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Huachipato, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match7 Jun 2027
33 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Agustín Giay 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 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Benjamín Ampuero is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maximiliano Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
Market7 Jun 2027
Union La Calera are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Huachipato will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Mar 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Huachipato, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Benjamín Ampuero is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match27 Mar 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Renzo Malanca, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Huachipato training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Rivera 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 watch29 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Huachipato, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
Everybody has an opinion about Eugenio Mena
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.