Marked for Yonathan Rojas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2028
Position 14, 28 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Gustavo Lozano 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 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 May 2028
A 3‑2 win over Zamora, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match31 May 2028
Ángelo Rivas wins it after the whistle should have gone
104 minutes played. Ángelo Rivas found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Zamora went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Ángelo Rivas takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market5 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at Metropolitanos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metropolitanos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Ángelo Rivas, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.45
A mark of 8.45 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market5 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Francisco Manenti 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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
Steady
Market13 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Metropolitanos will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yonathan Rojas has agreed terms with Deportivo Lara for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Francisco Manenti 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metropolitanos can tell you which week it ends in.
Match11 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesús Duarte, and the manager let it.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
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
Steady
Match24 Feb 2027
Deportivo La Guaira go through and Metropolitanos go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Diego Reyes breaks a bone — 41 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 Metropolitanos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Andrés Ferro 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Roger Manríque 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 ratings1 Mar 2027
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yhonatann Yustiz, and the manager let it.
Match27 Feb 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Estudiantes de Caracas defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
5.36. 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.