Marked for Daniel Meneses
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Mar 2028
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Sebastián Lojas out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Municipal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match8 Mar 2028
Ayacucho ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad13 Mar 2028
There were 7 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.
Market13 Mar 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 Deportivo Municipal can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Nobody could get near Níger Vega
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Mar 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 Deportivo Municipal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Mar 2028
Cienciano left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Styven Monsalve, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces14 Feb 2028
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad14 Feb 2028
46 days out for Sebastián Lojas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Municipal will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match12 Feb 2028
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Municipal has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Feb 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 Deportivo Municipal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Feb 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 Deportivo Municipal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Leonel Valencia 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 Feb 2028
Minute 86, against Sport Huancayo, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Marked 7.53 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Deportivo Municipal had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Gilmar Alemán out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Municipal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout19 Apr 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Sebastián Lojas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Apr 2027
Universitario left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match17 Apr 2027
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout19 Apr 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduardo Cabrera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Meneses and Deportivo Municipal agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2027
A 1‑4 beating by Melgar was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Gilmar Alemán breaks a bone — 61 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Apr 2027
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Sebastián Lojas 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Daniel Meneses is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
The dugout5 Apr 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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Raul Carrillo to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Gilmar Alemán out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Municipal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Jhon Alvarez 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 Deportivo Municipal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eduardo Cabrera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“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 dugout29 Mar 2027
Something was said to Níger Vega and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Mar 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.