Marked for Lukáš Raběčný
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Oct 2034
Pressure builds in the Aguilas Doradas boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Market23 Oct 2034
Only the photograph left for Richard Arias
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Richard Arias will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aguilas Doradas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Oct 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Market16 Oct 2034
Arthur is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aguilas Doradas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Aguilas Doradas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Lozano 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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
The manager makes an example of Sebastián Borja
“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.
Loan watch16 Oct 2034
“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 Aguilas Doradas, and 7 appearances in 43 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad16 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
A brace, and Hernán Cosme takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hernán Cosme provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces9 Oct 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market9 Oct 2034
Arthur 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 Aguilas Doradas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Oct 2034
“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.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Javier Mena 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.
Match7 Oct 2034
2‑3 to Once Caldas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Hernández, and the manager let it.
The terraces9 Oct 2034
Everybody has an opinion about Jaen Pineda
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Oct 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market2 Oct 2034
“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.
Squad2 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Words at Aguilas Doradas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Lozano 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.
Squad2 Oct 2034
The manager makes an example of Gonzalo Rubert
“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.
Match30 Sep 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hernán Cosme. 1‑0 against Santa Fe, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
Hernán Cosme was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
Player ratings2 Oct 2034
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Sep 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2034
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Aguilas Doradas is running low.
Match23 Sep 2034
No end in sight to Aguilas Doradas's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aguilas Doradas has to find a result from somewhere.
Market25 Sep 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aguilas Doradas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Kevin Chacón in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Dylan Lozano 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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jaen Pineda, and the manager let it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Sep 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
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.
Match16 Sep 2034
No end in sight to Aguilas Doradas's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aguilas Doradas has to find a result from somewhere.
Market18 Sep 2034
Arthur is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aguilas Doradas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Javier Mena in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2034
“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.
Loan watch18 Sep 2034
“I did not go to Alianza Petrolera to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aguilas Doradas and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 39 matches say the rest.
Match16 Sep 2034
It needed Marlon Carabali to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Deportes Tolima, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market18 Sep 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Javier Mena’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Sep 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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 Sep 2034
Position 18, 29 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match9 Sep 2034
No end in sight to Aguilas Doradas's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Aguilas Doradas has to find a result from somewhere.
Match9 Sep 2034
2‑3 to Envigado, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Dylan Lozano 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oliwier Latosi and Aguilas Doradas agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
A mark of 5.02 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Market11 Sep 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aguilas Doradas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Sep 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The terraces4 Sep 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market4 Sep 2034
Arthur 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 Aguilas Doradas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Sep 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jaen Pineda commits to Aguilas Doradas for another 2 years.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Javier Mena in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Words at Aguilas Doradas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Lozano 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.
Match2 Sep 2034
0‑2 to Atletico Bucaramanga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market4 Sep 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aguilas Doradas, another week without a signature from Marlon Carabali.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Aug 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2034
Pressure builds in the Aguilas Doradas boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market28 Aug 2034
Only the photograph left for Richard Arias
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Richard Arias will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aguilas Doradas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match26 Aug 2034
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Aug 2034
The manager makes an example of Kevin Chacón
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Words at Aguilas Doradas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan José Aguilar 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Aug 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Squad21 Aug 2034
A one-man rearguard from Kevin Chacón
There were 9 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.
Market21 Aug 2034
Only the photograph left for Arthur
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arthur will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Aguilas Doradas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Javier Mena in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Words at Aguilas Doradas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Lozano 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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.65, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch21 Aug 2034
“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 Aguilas Doradas, and 7 appearances in 35 say he has earned the hearing.
Match19 Aug 2034
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 terraces21 Aug 2034
The spotlight tightens on Jaen Pineda
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Aug 2034
Lukáš Raběčný 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Santiago Rios: 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.” Aguilas Doradas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Gonzalo Rubert 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Dylan Lozano 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.
Match12 Aug 2034
It finished 2‑1, and it was Oliwier Latosi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aguilas Doradas.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Aug 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aguilas Doradas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Boardroom14 Aug 2034
77 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Aug 2034
Lukáš Raběčný damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Match5 Aug 2034
0‑3 to Junior, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market7 Aug 2034
“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.
Match5 Aug 2034
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Aguilas Doradas are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Javier Mena in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aguilas Doradas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrés Álvarez and Aguilas Doradas agree another 1 years.
Squad7 Aug 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Borja, and the manager let it.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.