Marked for Sergio Terrazas
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 May 2030
15 matches without a win for Cienciano
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Cienciano are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 May 2030
There were 13 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match13 May 2030
Cienciano sink to position 12
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The dugout13 May 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cienciano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 May 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Cienciano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 May 2030
Claudio Núñez 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.
Match11 May 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ray Sandoval, and the manager let it.
Market13 May 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Mar 2030
No end in sight to Cienciano's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cienciano has to find a result from somewhere.
Match23 Mar 2030
The goals have deserted Cienciano
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cienciano can tell you which week it ends in.
Market25 Mar 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cienciano can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words exchanged at Cienciano
Claudio Núñez 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.
Match23 Mar 2030
Cienciano leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match23 Mar 2030
0‑2 to Universitario, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“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 dugout25 Mar 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Market25 Mar 2030
The clock does Claudio Núñez’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Cienciano could ask drops and the wages Claudio Núñez can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Sep 2029
Claudio Núñez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Duván Zárate, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
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 Sep 2029
Sergio Terrazas is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cienciano has been clear about where Sergio Terrazas stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market24 Sep 2029
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Cienciano could get for him.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
Jime Tuesta 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words exchanged at Cienciano
Claudio Núñez 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.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Cienciano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Arias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Cienciano than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
Andy Polar has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cienciano 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
The captaincy has been taken off Nicolás Ferreyra. Cienciano will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
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 Francesco Lara has written the date down.
Market6 Aug 2029
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Cienciano could get for him.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sergio Terrazas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Aug 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 Cienciano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A move Sergio Terrazas would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sergio Terrazas is living that version at Cienciano, and it tends to show in the first month.
Loan watch7 Aug 2028
“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 Cienciano, and 5 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Santiago Arias and Cienciano agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Santiago Arias 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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.
Market7 Aug 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Christofer Ramírez has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cienciano.
The dugout7 Aug 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.