Marked for Francisco Cordova
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2027
16 matches without a win for Llaneros
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Llaneros are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Apr 2027
Llaneros are in real trouble now
Position 14, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergio Herrera and Llaneros agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Thiago Yossen 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
Deportivo La Guaira left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Juan Osorio 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Darwin Osorio after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Llaneros
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.
Match27 Feb 2027
The small margins put Llaneros out
Out, 0‑2 to Zamora, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Llaneros
Thiago Yossen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Osorio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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 Yeferson Murillo is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
34 days out for Junior Castillo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Llaneros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Yeferson Murillo 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Yossen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match13 Feb 2027
A point taken on 90 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Llaneros
8 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
It needed David Rincon to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Atletico Venezuela, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Llaneros
Yeferson Murillo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Juan Osorio 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oscar Casseres and Llaneros agree another 1 years.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Richard Moreno's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Market5 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Junior Castillo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.