Position 20 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 The request is on a desk at La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Damián Pizarro provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Diego Martinez 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.
9 goals in one match, Damián Pizarro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of La Equidad and Deportes Tolima.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Freddy Uribe 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason La Equidad 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 La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Biel 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.
0‑4 to Aguilas Doradas, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. La Equidad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Diego Martinez 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 Freddy Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Nobody left the La Equidad dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The mood at La Equidad has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Freddy Uribe wants continental football; whether La Equidad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Biel had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at La Equidad until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything agreed with Deportes Quindio, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Diego Martinez 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.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Union Magdalena were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason La Equidad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Biel again, and this time the name on the line is San Marcos de Arica. La Equidad are listening politely and promising nothing.
$97.0K on the table at Union Magdalena. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Freddy Uribe 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.
31 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. La Equidad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. La Equidad have done the hard part with Tigre, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Diego Martinez 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
30 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Equidad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fee is $170.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cortulua drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Como have kept their man, and La Equidad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Biel did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Freddy Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed Biel to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Millonarios, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” James Restrepo was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the La Equidad dressing room was either.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for La Equidad
0‑3 against Deportivo Pereira, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Diego Martinez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at La Equidad can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” James Restrepo after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. La Equidad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Diego Martinez 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nestor Yevcin has, at La Equidad, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Aguilas Doradas go through and La Equidad go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms 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 La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Freddy Uribe 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
The deal that would have taken Fabian Caicedo to São Paulo has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to La Equidad with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Diego Martinez 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Biel and La Equidad agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennys Quintero 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. La Equidad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 135 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. La Equidad have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at La Equidad is running low.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at La Equidad can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Duvan Rodriguez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Santa Fe arrived with $8.2M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
142 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. La Equidad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Santiago Sanchez has gone, the accounts have $8.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Barracas Central keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Patriotas this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Freddy Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The mood at La Equidad has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fabian Caicedo wants continental football; whether La Equidad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Diego Martinez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
9 new faces, and La Equidad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Rios trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Caicedo signs something — a contract at La Equidad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Marcelo Alves 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ruslan Magal 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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Biel did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergey Volkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 Dmitriy Komarov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Diego Martinez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. La Equidad would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
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.
The mood at La Equidad has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at La Equidad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Freddy Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at La Equidad, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at La Equidad. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Diego Martinez has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sochi can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Stojić 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Dmitriy Komarov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at Sochi 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Lokomotiv Moscow? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
In brief
The dugoutBiel has become a man the manager trusts
Freddy Uribe 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 Rios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 goals in 5 games at Ternana — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at La Equidad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. La Equidad have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Juan Sebastián Ostos arrives at La Equidad with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at La Equidad that is a harder question to answer.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zakhar Fedorov provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Artem Korneev did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Stojić 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.
Mikhail Ignatov 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 offer from Spartak Moscow for Alexandr Degtev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Besiktas have kept their man, and Sochi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergey Volkov 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.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Marked 8.07 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 16 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Sochi until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
Sochi asked and Basaksehir said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sochi will try again when the window opens; Rodina may not be selling by then.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sochi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Pavel Meleshin 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.
Sochi asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The offer from Aswan for Biel was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Freddy Uribe 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.
The name of Duvan Rodriguez has come up in conversations La Equidad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Diego Rangel
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
5 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sochi can tell you which week it ends in.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Viktoria Plzen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sochi 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 Sergey Volkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A conversation is coming this week. Sochi will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Dmitriy Komarov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Santiago Sanchez was at the centre of it, Aguilas Doradas were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Brian Gonzalez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Brian Gonzalez, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Freddy Uribe 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.
At 19 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Freddy Uribe
Add another name to the list: Feyenoord have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Julian Palacios. The answer from La Equidad has not changed — yet.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Cristian Arias on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of La Equidad and Santa Fe.