Marked for Neyder Roncancio
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
86 days out for Reythnier Reyes after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Héroes de Falcón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Héroes de Falcón may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match20 Feb 2027
6 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Carlos Ramírez 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Mineros de Guayana left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Leonardo Falcón
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Héroes de Falcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Osorio 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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages eat 119% of everything Héroes de Falcón 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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Feb 2027
100 days out for Reythnier Reyes after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Héroes de Falcón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match6 Feb 2027
A 0‑3 beating by Barquisimeto was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match6 Feb 2027
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Héroes de Falcón are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Carlos Ramírez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Falcón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Alejo Sánchez Roa has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Héroes de Falcón 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leonardo Falcón
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Héroes de Falcón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Héroes de Falcón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Carlos Ramírez 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
203% of the income goes out in wages at Héroes de Falcón
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Ángel Arcaya gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Héroes de Falcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Neyder Roncancio 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.