Marked for Sergio Rincon
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zulia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Jair Andara 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Sergio Rincon
“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.
Market4 Jan 2027
12 months and counting on Hugo Sánchez
Still no offer on the table, and Hugo Sánchez’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Back issues
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
Zulia say no — this time
The offer from Deportivo Lara for Gabriel Cordova 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Jair Andara 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 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 Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Miguel Savarino 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Andres Ramirez 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Cordova 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
José Graterol has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zulia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Zulia out of the cup
Zamora ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Oscar Ferraresi has come up in conversations Zulia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match19 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Zulia's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zulia has to find a result from somewhere.
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 Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andres Ramirez 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.
Squad24 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The kick that got away from José Graterol
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.