Marked for Salomon Gonzalez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Aug 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Keiver Zúñiga
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Portuguesa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market6 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yonniel Bullones will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Portuguesa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Jonathan Cañete 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A move Salomon Gonzalez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Salomon Gonzalez is living that version at Portuguesa, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Oscar Otero to a room that had heard them before.
Market6 Aug 2029
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Reyes, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets11 Dec 2028
Everything was agreed with Boca Juniors and then the doctor spoke. Llaneros have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A falling-out at Llaneros
Alejandro Gonzalez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Miguel Arango 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Carlos Rincon commits to Llaneros for another 3 years.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Roberto Arango
“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.
Transfer targets11 Dec 2028
Palmeiras have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Daniel Osorio asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“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 Llaneros will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market11 Dec 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alejandro Gonzalez signs something — a contract at Llaneros or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Miguel Machis out for 85 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Dec 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 Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Richard Otero commits to Llaneros for another 3 years.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Llaneros
Alejandro Gonzalez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
$41.0K was the most the club would pay and Deportivo La Guaira 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.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad27 Dec 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Salomon Gonzalez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
A loan enquiry to Metropolitanos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Miguel Arango gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Miguel Arango is on it.