Marked for Luis Martinez
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Llaneros
A 2‑1 win over Deportivo Lara, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad24 Aug 2026
Richard Moreno 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.
Squad24 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Aug 2026
Llaneros keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.59, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Daniel Rondon, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Luis Martinez dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
4‑0, and Alejandro Murillo took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Llaneros tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” MC Oran had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Alejandro Murillo, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.69 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alejandro Murillo and Llaneros agree another 4 years.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Llaneros
Luis Martinez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Fernando Cardona 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Alejandro Murillo, whose 8 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match1 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 8‑1 against Deportivo Lara, and it could have been more.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Richard Moreno could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.44
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.44, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Junior Ferraresi has come up in conversations Llaneros were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Luis Martinez 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fernando Cardona was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.