Marked for Ronald González
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Apr 2029
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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Gabriel Hernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesús Ospino, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Atlético El Vigía training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor Monsalve 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 ratings16 Apr 2029
7.53, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Atlético El Vigía had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Salomon Herrera after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Market16 Apr 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Salomón Mosquera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout15 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Víctor Monsalve has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Atlético El Vigía is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market15 Jan 2029
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Atlético El Vigía training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Santecchia 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
No place for Andrés Guzmán in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Atlético El Vigía are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad15 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético El Vigía this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
A loan enquiry to Trujillanos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Carlos Plaza 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.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Christian Dávila 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Aug 2028
0‑4 to Yaracuyanos, 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 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 Atlético El Vigía can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Germán Contreras has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Atlético El Vigía is pretending otherwise.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
Ronald González: 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.” Atlético El Vigía have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match5 Aug 2028
No end in sight to Atlético El Vigía's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atlético El Vigía has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Aug 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 Atlético El Vigía this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Diego Rinaldi 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. Diego Rinaldi has, at Atlético El Vigía, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout27 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. David Contreras has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Atlético El Vigía is pretending otherwise.
The dugout27 Mar 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.
Market27 Mar 2028
Ulfran León has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético El Vigía they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Greyberth Trompetera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ricardo Benavides 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Dávila trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Daniel Moreno gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Daniel Moreno is on it.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bolívar in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market27 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atlético El Vigía know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Atlético El Vigía
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético El Vigía will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Jan 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 Atlético El Vigía can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The paperwork begins on Jesús Lara
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atlético El Vigía have done the hard part with Metropolitanos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Larson Pirela has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Atlético El Vigía is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Atlético El Vigía asked and Deportivo Tachira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Germán Contreras 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Ricardo Benavides 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
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.