Marked for Luis Arango
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Nov 2029
Carlos Ramírez damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Market19 Nov 2029
Ulises Agüero hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Nov 2029
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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Dussaubat 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.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Diego Osorio has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Market19 Nov 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Llaneros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
The manager makes Ulises Agüero a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Llaneros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Luis Arango knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Llaneros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market19 Nov 2029
The shop window has Pity in it
Llaneros have let the market know Pity can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Ramírez
97 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Oscar Otero out for 43 days
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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Junior Brítez 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Ramírez and Llaneros agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
Jose Machis gets picked when it counts
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 Jose Machis is on it.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Arango, and the manager let it.
Market8 Oct 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Darwin Otero’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
The manager makes Ulises Agüero a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Llaneros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market8 Oct 2029
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Cristian Quintero leaves Llaneros the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Oct 2029
104 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Oscar Otero breaks a bone — 50 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Oct 2029
Only the photograph left for Diego Osorio
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Osorio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Llaneros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market1 Oct 2029
Pity hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Junior Brítez 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ulises Agüero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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.
Market1 Oct 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jose Machis’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Sep 2029
Carlos Ramírez damages knee ligaments — 125 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A fracture rules Franco Naranjo out for 24 days
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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Junior Brítez 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jose Machis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
Jose Machis gets picked when it counts
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 Jose Machis is on it.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Arango, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Aug 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Ramírez
146 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Llaneros may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A falling-out at Llaneros
Junior Brítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jose Machis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Diego Osorio
“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 dugout20 Aug 2029
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 dugout20 Aug 2029
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.
Market20 Aug 2029
The name of Victor Rosales keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Llaneros say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Jul 2029
19 matches without a win for Llaneros
The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Llaneros are no longer polite ones.
Market9 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Diego Osorio
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Osorio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Llaneros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
The deal with Zulia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Junior Brítez 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 ratings9 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jose Machis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Venezuela have kept their man, and Llaneros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Deportivo La Guaira: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Match7 Jul 2029
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Apr 2029
The wait goes on for Llaneros
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Llaneros may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
Match28 Apr 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Arango and Llaneros agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match30 Apr 2029
The half-term report on Llaneros
Position 12, 13 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Victor Arango, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Ulises Agüero 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
Steady
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Franco Naranjo and Llaneros agree another 3 years.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Carlos Ramírez 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Caracas left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edison Penilla, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
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 Luis Rincon left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market19 Feb 2029
The Jose Machis story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jose Machis signs something — a contract at Llaneros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
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 Francisco Rosales is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Llaneros
Junior Brítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Carlos Ramírez 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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 7.89 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Llaneros had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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.” Luis Rincon, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The plan did not have a place for Edison Penilla
Nobody at Llaneros is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Yeferson Soteldo, 33, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Junior Brítez 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A season average of 7.22 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jose Machis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Llaneros asked and Estudiantes de Merida said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Jul 2028
It finished 2‑0, and it was Yeferson Soteldo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Llaneros.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The window shuts on the Nicolás Caprio deal
Llaneros ran out of time with Carabobo. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Anger at Llaneros spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match10 Jun 2028
Victor Rosales had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Zamora were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Luis Arango: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Andres Otero has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Llaneros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Jose Machis 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Jun 2028
A bad afternoon for Llaneros against Zamora
2‑3 to Zamora, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Junior Brítez 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
Match25 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Edison Penilla 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jose Machis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Jose Machis gets picked when it counts
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 Jose Machis is on it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Luis Arango gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Luis Rincon: “We have to be better”
“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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Luis Uliambre knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luis Uliambre trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Match25 Mar 2028
Point won or two lost for Llaneros?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Estudiantes de Merida? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.