Marked for Mateo Straffurini
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A fracture rules Vetle Auklend out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mads Mikkelsen
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
A stranger takes charge at Odd
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Squad3 Dec 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 Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad3 Dec 2029
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market3 Dec 2029
Experience through the door at Odd
Alagie Sanyang arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Nov 2029
Anger at Odd spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Vetle Auklend out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mads Mikkelsen
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Odd
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match26 Nov 2029
Odd are in real trouble now
Position 14, 27 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad26 Nov 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Odd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Nov 2029
A fracture rules Vetle Auklend out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Nov 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 Odd can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Odd
Vebjørn Hoff 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Oct 2029
Vetle Auklend breaks a bone — 111 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces29 Oct 2029
Anger at Odd spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
Pressure builds in the Odd boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match29 Oct 2029
Every point is an argument now for Odd
Position 14 and 27 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market29 Oct 2029
Mauro García has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Odd they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Vebjørn Hoff in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santeri Väänänen 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Dimitrij Nazarov out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Bjorn King has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Odd can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Oct 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 Odd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Odd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vebjørn Hoff commits to Odd for another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Odd
Vebjørn Hoff 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.
Match6 Oct 2029
Nobody wins at Odd
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match6 Oct 2029
It finished 2‑1, and it was Hinrik Harðarson’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Odd.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Sep 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
The terraces3 Sep 2029
Anger at Odd spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match3 Sep 2029
Odd sink to position 14
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
No sign of nerves from Elion Krosa at 21 — 8.05
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Elion Krosa did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market3 Sep 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Facundo Ledesma: 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.” Odd have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market3 Sep 2029
Only the photograph left for Mauro García
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauro García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Odd the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match6 Aug 2029
Odd are in real trouble now
Position 14, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The Odd board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market6 Aug 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 Odd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Odd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match4 Aug 2029
The wait goes on for Odd
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.
Squad6 Aug 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 Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market23 Jul 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 Odd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Odd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Odd
Santeri Väänänen 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.
Match21 Jul 2029
A bad afternoon for Odd against Stabaek
0‑1 to Stabaek, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Casper Glenna 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.
Market23 Jul 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Felix Örn Friðriksson has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Odd.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
4.45. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Jul 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Jul 2029
Every point is an argument now for Odd
Position 14 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings9 Jul 2029
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market9 Jul 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 Odd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Jul 2029
There were 6 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dimitrij Nazarov and Odd agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings9 Jul 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Odd
Santeri Väänänen 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.
Player ratings9 Jul 2029
16 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Jun 2029
Odd are in real trouble now
Position 14, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Odd
Santeri Väänänen 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.
Match9 Jun 2029
Odd come up short against Aalesund
Aalesund left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dimitrij Nazarov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
Ninety minutes of Syver Aas at his very best
Marked 8.43. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Odd.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Ormart 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 ratings11 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jun 2029
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.
The terraces11 Jun 2029
Everybody has an opinion about Oliver Petersen
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jun 2029
There were 10 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Crisis meeting at Odd
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market4 Jun 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 Odd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Odd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Jun 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 Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“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.
Match2 Jun 2029
A bad afternoon for Odd against Sandefjord
0‑1 to Sandefjord, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces4 Jun 2029
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 May 2029
Chastening afternoon for Odd
A 1‑4 beating by Bodo/Glimt was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad7 May 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom7 May 2029
Fredrik Meling has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Odd can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The Odd board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market7 May 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 May 2029
6 matches without a win for Odd
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Odd are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 May 2029
Vebjørn Hoff in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Odd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santeri Väänänen 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.
Squad7 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Vebjørn Hoff
“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
Uneasy
Match28 Apr 2029
No end in sight to Odd's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Odd has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Odd
Zakaria Mugeese 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Santeri Väänänen 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 ratings30 Apr 2029
21 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 ratings30 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Odd are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“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 ratings30 Apr 2029
7.87, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Odd had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match28 Apr 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Lillestrom will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Thomas Grøgaard
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Odd may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Pressure builds in the Odd boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market4 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Vebjørn Hoff in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Markus Naglestad and Odd agree another 2 years.
Market4 Dec 2028
At 38, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Odd pull $1.3M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market4 Dec 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santeri Väänänen signs something — a contract at Odd or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
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Market
Odd shop where it costs nothing
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Boardroom
Odd keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
Mauricio Castaño damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market13 Nov 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 Jaguares can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Andres Lioi pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market13 Nov 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Nov 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 Jaguares this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Kahiser Lenis 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
Crisis
Squad25 Sep 2028
Mauricio Castaño damages knee ligaments — 63 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 63 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match25 Sep 2028
Every point is an argument now for Jaguares
Position 20 and 27 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Age has not caught Yairo Moreno yet — 8.47
At 33 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Andres Lioi 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Jaguares training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfrido De La Rosa 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 ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Sep 2028
1‑2 to Independiente Medellin, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mauricio Castaño
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jaguares lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Aug 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Joiner Moreno: 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.” Jaguares have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Andres Lioi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jaguares this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Wilfrido De La Rosa 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 ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Aug 2028
0‑1 to Aguilas Doradas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
5.66. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Market14 Aug 2028
7 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Jaguares money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mauricio Castaño
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jaguares lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Jul 2028
“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 Jaguares, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.86, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 Jul 2028
There were 6 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jaguares have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Wilfrido De La Rosa 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
A 2‑1 win over Santa Fe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
Crisis
Squad17 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mauricio Castaño
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jaguares lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Jul 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Jul 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 Jaguares this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Wilfrido De La Rosa 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.
Match15 Jul 2028
0‑1 to Millonarios, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Marked 5.69. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Apr 2028
20 matches without a win for Jaguares
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Jaguares are no longer polite ones.
Market17 Apr 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 Jaguares can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Yéiner Vargas: 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.” Jaguares have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Bruno Rizzi 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Jaguares training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfrido De La Rosa 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Carlos Henao 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Jaguares
19 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.
Match10 Apr 2028
Every point is an argument now for Jaguares
Position 20 and 5 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Ordóñez and Jaguares agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Wilfrido De La Rosa 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 ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Mateo Straffurini 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Wilfrido De La Rosa'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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
3.79. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Feb 2028
The wait goes on for Jaguares
13 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.
Match23 Feb 2028
Jaguares march on in the cup
Alianza Petrolera are out and Jaguares go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
There were 9 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Franklin Mosquera: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The terraces28 Feb 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 9 of the 36 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
29 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 ratings28 Feb 2028
A chastening introduction for Mateo Straffurini — 5.48
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.48 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Bruno Rizzi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jaguares this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.