Marked for Carlos Romero
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Oct 2027
Diego Arrieta and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Universitario Popayan will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Duvan Cardona has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Mateo Torres 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 dugout4 Oct 2027
César Farias is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Brignani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Jhon Cabal loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jhon Cabal's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Match4 Oct 2027
29 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Market4 Oct 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Diego Muriel may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
Mateo Torres in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Jorge Falcao 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 Jorge Falcao is on it.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
César Farias 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.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager makes Diego Arrieta a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Universitario Popayan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Depor is saying, and nobody at Universitario Popayan is enjoying the guessing.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Mateo Torres 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
Jhon Cabal gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
César Farias is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Fabian Mejia 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Ánderson Mojica 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market9 Aug 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Universitario Popayan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 Jun 2027
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Universitario Popayan are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Mateo Torres in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Universitario Popayan asked and Jaguares said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Mateo Torres was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match5 Jun 2027
A goal on 87 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luis Quintero
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match15 May 2027
10 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings17 May 2027
César Farias, 21, steals the show — 7.96
Marked 7.96 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match15 May 2027
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad17 May 2027
Diego Arrieta 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 ratings17 May 2027
Mateo Torres beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hector Medina 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.
Match15 May 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.