Marked for Sergio Moreno
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market11 Feb 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Lara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match9 Feb 2030
4 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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
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 Lara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Bustillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Too much change too quickly at Deportivo Lara
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
A mark of 7.51, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Andres Ferraresi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Deportivo Lara dressing room was either.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
Somebody else is better right now than Raudy Guerrero
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
Pressure builds in the Deportivo Lara boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market14 Jan 2030
José Barragán hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Lara can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jan 2030
Sergio Moreno has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Lara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Jan 2030
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 Lara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
Deportivo Lara offered $350.0K; Caracas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Deportivo Lara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Bustillo 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 dugout14 Jan 2030
“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.
Market14 Jan 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gabriel Benítez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Deportivo Lara. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Deportivo Lara is running low.
The terraces17 Dec 2029
Anger at Deportivo Lara spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market17 Dec 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Metropolitanos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Lara is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market17 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Lara can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets17 Dec 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo Lara have done the hard part with Zulia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Dec 2029
$210.0K on the table at Estudiantes de Merida. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Lara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market17 Dec 2029
The fee is $140.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Estudiantes de Merida drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad17 Dec 2029
José Febres in a row with a teammate
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 Lara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Apr 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Lara can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Lara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Francisco Flores 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.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“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 dugout30 Apr 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo Lara told Jorge Graterol something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergio Moreno commits to Deportivo Lara for another 1 years.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Marked 7.22 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Deportivo Lara had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andres Ferraresi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Mar 2029
11 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Lara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Brayan Palacios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Mar 2029
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match3 Mar 2029
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. José Barragán had Deportivo Lara level again within 2 minutes, and Aragua never got to play with a lead at all.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“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.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo Lara told Tilman Palacios something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Too much change too quickly at Deportivo Lara
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 May 2028
69 days out for Camilo Romero after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match6 May 2028
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Universitario Popayan has to find a result from somewhere.
Market8 May 2028
Gabriel Bacca hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Universitario Popayan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 May 2028
Francisco Mejia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 May 2028
0‑2 to Jaguares, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout8 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Johan Mejia to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings8 May 2028
The one goal a footballer does not get to celebrate and does not get to forget either. His name is in the wrong column and nothing about it was meant.
Squad8 May 2028
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giancarlo García is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.