Marked for Camilo Tapasco
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Feb 2028
“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.
Match19 Feb 2028
The wait goes on for Cortulua
5 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Cortulua
Jesus Hernandez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Jose Ospina 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Yilber Aponzá
“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.
Match19 Feb 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” James Hernandez was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Cortulua dressing room was either.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Gabriel Bacca knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cortulua, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Aug 2027
Ordabasy come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cortulua did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cortulua may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Cortulua
Santiago Beltrán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Match14 Aug 2027
Union Magdalena left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Aug 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” James Hernandez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Cortulua will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Cortulua
5 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Santiago Beltrán 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
La Equidad left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Feb 2027
20 new faces, and Cortulua are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for James Arias
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. James Arias has come out of that comparison in the side, and Cortulua have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
Squad8 Feb 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
Add another name to the list: Bogota have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hugo Sanchez. The answer from Cortulua has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
The deal with Envigado 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jeycob Zabaleta 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Cortulua asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market28 Dec 2026
17 games and 1 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Junior Palacios 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.