Marked for Jefferson Arias
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jefferson Arias
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cortulua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match6 Feb 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 6.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market8 Feb 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oscar Moreno wants continental football; whether Cortulua can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tomás Velásquez 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market8 Feb 2027
Kevin Rios is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cortulua has been clear about where Kevin Rios stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Real Cartagena to sit and watch. I want to come back to Cortulua and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 7 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jefferson Arias
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cortulua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Feb 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Freddy Lemos wants continental football; whether Cortulua can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad1 Feb 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 Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Jan 2027
Cortulua are at home on the road
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Market1 Feb 2027
Manuel Murillo is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cortulua has been clear about where Manuel Murillo stands, which is more than many ever get.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
At 21 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Three points for Cortulua, 1‑0 the final word against La Equidad in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jefferson Arias damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 26 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Graduation day at Cortulua
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match23 Jan 2027
Jaguares left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Kevin Rios 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Cortulua are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Market25 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergio Borja has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jefferson Arias
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cortulua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Andres Quintero 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fernando Santos and Cortulua agree another 4 years.