Marked for Marcos López
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Sep 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Sep 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 Deportivo Tachira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Aguilar, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Sep 2035
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Tachira will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Sep 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Tachira is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Alejandro Araque 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
Uneasy
Squad27 Aug 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Agustín Pérez
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Tachira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Delvin Alfonzo 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.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at Deportivo Tachira training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos López 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
Squad6 Aug 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 Deportivo Tachira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Lautaro Lusnig pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad6 Aug 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Popolizio, and the manager let it.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
A defender's afternoon for Juan Castillo
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match4 Aug 2035
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Estudiantes de Merida will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 May 2035
Adalberto Peñaranda 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.
Squad7 May 2035
Words at Deportivo Tachira training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Delvin Alfonzo 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.
Match5 May 2035
It finished 1‑0, and it was Juan Aguilar’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Deportivo Tachira.
Player ratings7 May 2035
Ninety minutes of Juan Aguilar at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Deportivo Tachira.
Player ratings7 May 2035
18 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.
Squad7 May 2035
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo Tachira told Adalberto Peñaranda something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Boardroom7 May 2035
85% of the income goes out in wages at Deportivo Tachira
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings7 May 2035
15 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Apr 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Tachira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Apr 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 Deportivo Tachira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match31 Mar 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Zúñiga. 1‑0 against Trujillanos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad2 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lautaro Lusnig, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Delvin Alfonzo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportivo Tachira 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.
Player ratings2 Apr 2035
A defender's afternoon for Juan Castillo
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2034
A fracture rules Alejandro Araque out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Tachira will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Delvin Alfonzo 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Aug 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Tachira is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Delvin Alfonzo 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.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Eduardo Fereira 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
Uneasy
Squad24 Apr 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Tachira will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Delvin Alfonzo 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.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Eduardo Fereira 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.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Carlos Sosa 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.
Match22 Apr 2034
It finished 1‑0, and it was Juan Aguilar’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Deportivo Tachira.
Player ratings24 Apr 2034
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Apr 2034
“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 Deportivo Tachira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match15 Apr 2034
8 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.
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 Deportivo Tachira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Apr 2034
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Words at Deportivo Tachira training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eduardo Fereira 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 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Araque, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Apr 2034
Successful dribbles: 13. 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
5.40. 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.