Marked for Ivan Arias
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Francisco Herrera damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Market23 Nov 2026
Ivan Arias 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 Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Juan Rodriguez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 49. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Francisco Herrera damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Match23 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 18 matches without defeat is a foundation Cortulua did not have in the autumn.
Match23 Oct 2026
2‑0 against Talleres, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Fabian Mina was at the centre of the description.
Market26 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Castillo 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Jesus Santos 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 Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Sep 2026
Francisco Herrera damages knee ligaments — 119 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Market28 Sep 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 Sep 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match26 Sep 2026
Cortulua make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cortulua have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Castillo 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fábio Fernandes. 3‑1 against Once Caldas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.55, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Francisco Herrera damages knee ligaments — 133 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 133 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Cortulua
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cortulua heard it as anything else.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Jose Uribe
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Castillo 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Fabian Mina ran the middle of the pitch — 6.86
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cortulua told Juan Rodriguez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Cortulua?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Santa Fe? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cortulua march on in the cup
Alianza Petrolera are out and Cortulua go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A debut Pedro Di María will not forget — 7.49
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.49 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Fernando Borja, 35, rolls back the years — 7.96
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match15 Aug 2026
Cortulua make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cortulua have 4 straight wins of it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Cortulua say no — this time
The offer from Ilves for Julian Caicedo 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.
Market17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Castillo 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.