Marked for David Martinez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Richard Herrera to Fehervar has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Zulia with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Rafael Arango named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rafael Arango is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Zulia will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Aug 2026
Zulia out of the cup
Estudiantes de Merida ended it 2‑11. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
It finished 2-11. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Victor Machis, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A chastening introduction for David Martinez — 5.78
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.78 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.