Marked for Martín Gómez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Fernando Zampedri 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Universidad Catolica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Montes 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jhojan Valencia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Universidad Catolica may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Branco Ampuero 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Clemente Montes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universidad Catolica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristián Cuevas, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Martín Gómez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universidad Catolica 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
Steady
Match9 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Antofagasta, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Fernando Zampedri 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Martín Gómez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Universidad Catolica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Montes 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Martín Gómez
A mark of 7.47, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Vicente Bernedo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universidad Catolica 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Universidad Catolica man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Justo Giani was the best thing in any of them.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universidad Catolica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Clemente Montes 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Martín Gómez named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Martín Gómez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Matías Palavecino's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.