Marked for Sergio Martinez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Savarino
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gonzalez 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Daniel Moreno 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 May 2027
Llaneros win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Atletico Venezuela will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market31 May 2027
Juan Savarino hands in a written request
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
Carlos Gonzalez 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.
Squad31 May 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
Match29 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Richard Rincon. 1‑0 against Atletico Venezuela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 May 2027
Juan Savarino hands in a written request
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
Match1 May 2027
1‑2 to Portuguesa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergio Martinez, and the manager let it.
Squad3 May 2027
A month that belonged to Luis Murillo
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Llaneros who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Apr 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Aragua, and it could have been more.
Squad26 Apr 2027
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.
Market26 Apr 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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Luis Murillo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.25
A mark of 8.25 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match24 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play Llaneros right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Apr 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.46, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Player ratings
Sergio Soteldo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Squad
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Sergio Soteldo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A brace, and Fernando Herrera takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fernando Herrera provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market19 Apr 2027
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Luis Murillo at 21 — 7.70
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luis Murillo did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad19 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Apr 2027
Three points for Llaneros, 3‑1 the final word against Deportivo Lara in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gonzalez 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Sergio Martinez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Llaneros will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Apr 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Llaneros
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Llaneros can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Apr 2027
Deportivo La Guaira left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Mar 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Mar 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Feb 2027
Mineros de Guayana ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market1 Mar 2027
Juan Savarino hands in a written request
“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.
Match27 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergio Martinez and Llaneros agree another 3 years.
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Gonzalez 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.80, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad15 Feb 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Carlos Gonzalez 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Feb 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Fernando Herrera at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Llaneros.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Chances created: 4. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Carlos Gonzalez damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Estudiantes de Caracas had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Llaneros did not stop to explain themselves.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
David Gonzalez 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sergio Martinez has his answer from Llaneros; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Fernando Herrera at his very best
Marked 8.36. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Llaneros.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Richard Rincon 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Carlos Gonzalez damages knee ligaments — 71 days out
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.
Squad21 Dec 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Fredy Guerrero 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market21 Dec 2026
Llaneros shop where it costs nothing
Fredy Guerrero signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
Carlos Gonzalez damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match11 Dec 2026
Llaneros come up short in Europe
0‑2 away to the standard of Lanús. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Market14 Dec 2026
Caracas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Llaneros did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match11 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
Match11 Dec 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Llaneros
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Ramirez and Llaneros agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gonzalez 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Llaneros, another week without a signature from Jonny Milla.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Gonzalez
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Nov 2026
A European lesson for Llaneros
1‑3 against Deportivo Cali. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Match27 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Nov 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Llaneros
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad30 Nov 2026
David Gonzalez 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Gonzalez
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match6 Nov 2026
Llaneros come up short in Europe
0‑2 away to the standard of Internacional. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Match6 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Nov 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Llaneros
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Carlos Gonzalez damages knee ligaments — 129 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
Match23 Oct 2026
0‑9. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Beaten 9 times, with 5 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Market26 Oct 2026
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Oct 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Llaneros and Internacional in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Oct 2026
David Gonzalez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Sep 2026
1‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Fernando Herrera, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 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.
Squad21 Sep 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gonzalez 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Llaneros dressing room in a hurry
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Luis Murillo
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
4‑1, and Roberto Savarino took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Llaneros tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.34, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Fernando Herrera, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fernando Herrera and Llaneros agree another 4 years.
Squad10 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
David Gonzalez 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luis Murillo 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.