Marked for Yeferson Soteldo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Apr 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 The request is on a desk at Atletico Venezuela, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guillermo Coronel and Atletico Venezuela agree another 3 years.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Atletico Venezuela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Uviedo 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Wilmar Vargas 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 terraces26 Apr 2027
The crowd has taken to Luis Rincon
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.
Match24 Apr 2027
A 2‑0 win over Aragua, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.68, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sergio Rincon on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Guillermo Coronel is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
Juan Romero breaks a bone — 19 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A brace, and Wilmar Vargas takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Wilmar Vargas provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad5 Apr 2027
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.02, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Fernando 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Uviedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Apr 2027
A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match3 Apr 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Feb 2027
1‑2 against Carabobo, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match27 Feb 2027
Trujillanos will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Atletico Venezuela were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Juan Romero out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atletico Venezuela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and Victor Rondon takes the afternoon — 9.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Victor Rondon provided it, and the 9.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Rafael Machis at 19 — 7.83
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rafael Machis did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 Mar 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 Atletico Venezuela can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Wilmar Vargas 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. 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.
Match12 Aug 2026
Out, 3‑3 to Deportivo Lara, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.75, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Luis Rincon, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match15 Aug 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Atletico Venezuela are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Juan Romero 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 Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Portuguesa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Atletico Venezuela have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.