Marked for Leonardo Sosa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Mar 2035
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
A brace, and Nejc Gradišar takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nejc Gradišar provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
Bastián Yáñez, 33, rolls back the years — 8.22
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Martín Sarrafiore 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.
Match10 Mar 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nejc Gradišar. 2‑0 against Santiago Wanderers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad12 Mar 2035
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Words at O'Higgins training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Balanta 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 ratings12 Mar 2035
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
12 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Feb 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thiago Vecino commits to O'Higgins for another 2 years.
Squad5 Feb 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at O'Higgins this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Feb 2035
The name of Felipe Nunez has come up in conversations O'Higgins were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Jan 2035
Martín Sarrafiore 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.
Squad29 Jan 2035
6 new faces, and O'Higgins are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Leandro Díaz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at O'Higgins 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at O'Higgins training over how hard people work
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Market
The Ivan Pulgar story refuses to die
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jan 2035
Martín Sarrafiore 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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alan Robledo, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Jan 2035
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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at O'Higgins training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Dec 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Dec 2034
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 O'Higgins have had the benefit of it.
Market11 Dec 2034
The fee is $1.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Universidad de Chile drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market11 Dec 2034
Jorge Peña has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around O'Higgins they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom11 Dec 2034
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jorge Peña has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Martín Sarrafiore 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 terraces11 Dec 2034
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Nejc Gradišar from Universidad de Chile for $1.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Market11 Dec 2034
Add another name to the list: Palmeiras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ivan Pulgar. The answer from O'Higgins has not changed — yet.
Squad11 Dec 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrés Fernández and O'Higgins agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Martín Sarrafiore commits to O'Higgins for another 2 years.
Squad6 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at O'Higgins this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Miguel Brizuela has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at O'Higgins 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
Squad23 Oct 2034
Leonardo Sosa: 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.” O'Higgins have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at O'Higgins this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Oct 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamín Astudillo and O'Higgins agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Sep 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Sep 2034
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad4 Sep 2034
25 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and O'Higgins know what they have.
Match2 Sep 2034
The wait goes on for O'Higgins
4 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.
Squad4 Sep 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Cristián Díaz commits to O'Higgins for another 3 years.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2034
A fracture rules Luis Pavez Muñoz out for 135 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason O'Higgins will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Apr 2034
Age has not caught Thiago Vecino yet — 8.47
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.47 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad17 Apr 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at O'Higgins this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leonardo Sosa and O'Higgins agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Apr 2034
“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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2034
Ninety minutes of Sergio Siza at his very best
Marked 8.69. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at O'Higgins.
Player ratings17 Apr 2034
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 Apr 2034
A defender's afternoon for Cristián Díaz
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Dec 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 142 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Dec 2033
A move Leonardo Sosa 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. Leonardo Sosa is living that version at O'Higgins, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Dec 2033
Martín Sarrafiore 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.
Market19 Dec 2033
“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.
Squad19 Dec 2033
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. O'Higgins told Leonardo Sosa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market19 Dec 2033
Jorge Peña is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at O'Higgins has been clear about where Jorge Peña stands, which is more than many ever get.