There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Llaneros scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Position 2 and 57 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
A brace, and Noah Blanco takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noah Blanco provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Deportivo Tachira have accepted the money. What Llaneros do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A 3‑2 win over Deportivo Tachira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Moreno 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.
César Urpín 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.
At 22 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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Carlos Soteldo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Llaneros 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
A 2‑1 win over Deportivo Tachira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Deportivo Tachira spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Machis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Llaneros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑1 against Lanús. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Luis Moreno takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luis Moreno provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Juan Rondon kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutAndres Herrera has become a man the manager trusts
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Llaneros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match6 Mar 2027
Carlos Soteldo wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Carlos Soteldo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Trujillanos went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Llaneros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Carlos Soteldo. 1‑0 against Trujillanos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jonathan Jesus 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Machis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rafael Gonzalez, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Juan Rondon left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Carlos Soteldo is on it.