Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Lemos 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.
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Julian Ramirez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
David Lemos had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Millonarios were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and David Lemos takes the afternoon — 8.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Lemos provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Mosta for Javier Rios 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Cardona 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.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Atletico Nacional had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Cortulua did not stop to explain themselves.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Lemos 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
Out, 1‑2 to Alianza Petrolera, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. FC Augsburg moved on, Oscar Medina reports back to Cortulua, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The offer from Queens Park Rangers for Ivan Cardona 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nicolas Rangel, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 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.
Javier Lemos has left for Valladolid in a $500.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Aug 2026
David Lemos 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nicolas Rangel, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Cardona 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.
Nicolas Rangel, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.73
A mark of 7.73 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.
“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 Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Lemos 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.
At 20 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.