Marked for Daniel Sanchez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
50 days out for Diego Giraldo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match24 Feb 2027
Out, 0‑5 to America de Cali, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market1 Mar 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Universitario Popayan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Sanchez 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Minute 86, against Barranquilla, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
Diego Giraldo breaks a bone — 71 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match6 Feb 2027
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Universitario Popayan are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Juan Herrera beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Cristian Torres 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Yerry Santos, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Match6 Feb 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Leones defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
79 days out for Diego Giraldo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Juan Herrera beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Cristian Torres 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Cristian Guzmán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
50 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniel Sanchez
“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.
Match30 Jan 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Depor defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cristian Torres 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Carlos Vargas 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universitario Popayan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
Cristian Torres and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Sanchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.