It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Edwin Santos wants continental football; whether Estudiantes de Caracas can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Edwin Santos 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 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 Estudiantes de Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Rondon 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 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.
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.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Sergio Soteldo’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadEdwin Santos is training like a man with a point to make
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Estudiantes de Caracas who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Ferraresi 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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Andres Rosales is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The offer from Mladost Lucani for Juan Ramirez 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.
Carlos Herrera 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.
Out, 2‑3 to Zamora, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Andres Rosales, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Edwin Santos 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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Carabobo kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Estudiantes de Caracas will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Andres Rosales, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.29
A mark of 9.29 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Edwin Santos and Estudiantes de Caracas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Estudiantes de Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Andres Rosales has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Junior Ferraresi 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.