The Cortulua Post
Squad19 Feb 2029
Nicolas Ramirez damages knee ligaments — 113 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
5 matches without a win for Cortulua
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Cortulua are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Tempers go at Cortulua
Alfredo Montero 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A row about effort at Cortulua
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Méndez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Feb 2029
Cortulua come up short against Tigres
Tigres left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Jan Vega
“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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Jefferson Rios for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Cortulua will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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 0‑2 Diego Bacca left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
When it matters, Alfredo Montero plays
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.
In brief
- Player ratings Kevin Romero runs at them all day
- The dugout Cortulua pick somebody else ahead of José Mosquera
- Market Kevin Romero linked with a move away