4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atletico Venezuela has to find a result from somewhere.
Roberto Ferraresi 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Domingo Ortíz
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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Estudiantes de Merida defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 122th minute. Deportivo Lara will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Cristian Martinez could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.20
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.20, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Diego Murillo did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Roberto Ferraresi 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Ferraresi 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.
Llaneros made Atletico Venezuela work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Salomon Rincon'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.
Marked 7.48 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Atletico Venezuela had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Junior Moreno, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Prieto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Salomon Rincon is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Atletico Venezuela will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
5 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Rubert Quijada 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Daniel Gonzalez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.