Marked for Elijah Pacheco
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 May 2030
The run at home goes on for Caracas
21 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad20 May 2030
A fracture rules Matías Núñez out for 44 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Caracas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 May 2030
Caracas are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 42 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market20 May 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeriel De Santis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Caracas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 May 2030
A season average of 7.55 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout20 May 2030
Elijah Pacheco: 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.” Caracas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 May 2030
Luis Del Pino Mago 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.
Looking ahead20 May 2030
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Player ratings20 May 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Mar 2030
14 unbeaten for Caracas
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation Caracas did not have in the autumn.
Match9 Mar 2030
Caracas make home a hard place to visit
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market11 Mar 2030
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Caracas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Caracas
Luis Del Pino Mago and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match9 Mar 2030
After 5 games, Caracas finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Zamora; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Caracas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Benardoni 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.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
Yeferson Soteldo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Caracas 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.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
The manager makes an example of Tomás Benardoni
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Dec 2029
The knee: Jesús Yendis out for 35 days
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Caracas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Dec 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Caracas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Caracas
Luis Del Pino Mago 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.
Transfer targets31 Dec 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.
Market31 Dec 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Caracas will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Osorio, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2029
A loan enquiry to Estudiantes: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2029
A loan enquiry to Rosario Central: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2029
Penarol have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
Caracas lift the trophy
The season a town measures the next twenty against. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Match12 Dec 2029
Cup progress for Caracas
A 2‑1 win over Carabobo, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad17 Dec 2029
Eric Ramírez is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.32 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market17 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Caracas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Dec 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Caracas have had the benefit of it.
Market17 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Caracas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
Elijah Pacheco: 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.” Caracas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets17 Dec 2029
Caracas have gone to Deportivo La Guaira with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A move Román Zalazar would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Román Zalazar is living that version at Caracas, and it tends to show in the first month.