Marked for Dylan López
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Lujano
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Arlés Flores out for 111 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamora will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market17 Jan 2028
Dylan López hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zamora can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Jan 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 Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Zamora asked and Cerro Porteno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaí Valladares 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
Carlos Lujano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zamora 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
A promise honoured at Zamora
Something was said to Anthonys Matos and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Néstor Jiménez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
Marco Bustillo damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Richard Celis: 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.” Zamora have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Carlos Lujano 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
“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 dugout22 Nov 2027
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Zamora
Nicol Martínez 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
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Casimiro Peña and Zamora agree another 3 years.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Carlos Lujano 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arlés Flores, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 Marco Bustillo is on it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Carlos Lujano 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
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Zamora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Lujano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Arlés Flores 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Zamora know which stage they are at.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and José Barragán has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
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 dugout4 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luis Casimiro Peña trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Zamora are in Europe
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Stiven Valencia: 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.” Zamora have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market21 Dec 2026
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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zamora have done the hard part with Deportivo La Guaira, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Zamora
Kevin Armesto 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Carlos Lujano 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Zamora asked and Carabobo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Erickson Gallardo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of José Sequera
“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.