Marked for Daniel Socarras
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match18 Sep 2026
3‑1 against Carabobo, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Guillermo Paiva was at the centre of the description.
Squad21 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Guillermo Paiva at his very best
Marked 9.69. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Junior.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Junior
Cristian Barrios 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 Sep 2026
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match19 Sep 2026
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Junior pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Daniel Socarras damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Arsenal Tula had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Julián Guevara gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Julián Guevara has just signed for Junior, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Muriel 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Caicedo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leonardo Moreno is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Junior are still strangers to each other
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Daniel Socarras damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Luis Muriel yet — 7.89
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Sep 2026
Junior say no — this time
The offer from Arda for Miller Bacca was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Muriel 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 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Junior
Cristian Barrios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Luis Muriel
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.