Marked for Anthwan Díaz
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
41 days out for Carlos Rivero after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo La Guaira will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 May 2027
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Carlos Rivero 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 May 2027
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 terraces24 May 2027
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match22 May 2027
A 2‑0 win over Zamora, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings24 May 2027
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout24 May 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sergio Rondon could afford to be generous.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
102 days out for Carlos Rivero after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo La Guaira will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Carlos Rivero 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Enmanuel Meléndez is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flabián Londoño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Anthwan Díaz
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo La Guaira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Dec 2026
Only the photograph left for Jorge Sánchez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Sánchez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo La Guaira the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
The deal with Titanes Guanare is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olimpia is saying, and nobody at Deportivo La Guaira is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Anzoátegui wanted more than $630.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anthwan Díaz is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Deportivo La Guaira asked and Monagas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market21 Dec 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Juan Perdomo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 César Da Silva is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo La Guaira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Oct 2026
“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 La Guaira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Deportivo La Guaira training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flabián Londoño 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
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 César Da Silva is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market26 Oct 2026
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Deportivo La Guaira could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
“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.
Market19 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Sulbarán will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo La Guaira the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Anthwan Díaz is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Orihuela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Deportivo La Guaira is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Sulbarán will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo La Guaira the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Carlos Rivero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Anthwan Díaz is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Manuel Sulbarán is on it.