Marked for Johan Murillo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 May 2028
“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.
The dugout29 May 2028
“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.
Squad29 May 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 Antofagasta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 May 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.
Match27 May 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 May 2028
Adrián Cuadra 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.
Match29 May 2028
The half-term report on Antofagasta
Position 9, 19 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout29 May 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout29 May 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
Fernando Soto decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad20 Mar 2028
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Santiago Mederos 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Erik Santana arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Erik Santana has, at Antofagasta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match18 Mar 2028
Colo-Colo left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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.
Match15 Mar 2028
Antofagasta hit back inside 2 minutes
Deportes Limache held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Antofagasta answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alfred Canales and Antofagasta agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Mathías Suárez 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Johan Murillo arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Johan Murillo has, at Antofagasta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Antofagasta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Astorga 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Antofagasta, another week without a signature from Tomás Aránguiz.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Wages eat 88% of everything Antofagasta earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
Cristián Díaz 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.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
Franco Rodríguez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Antofagasta 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.