Marked for Darwin Murillo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Oct 2028
The mood at Atletico Venezuela has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Daniel Rincon damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Atletico Venezuela
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market16 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atletico Venezuela can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Darwin Moreno
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces18 Sep 2028
The mood at Atletico Venezuela has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Atletico Venezuela is running low.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Atletico Venezuela, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Atletico Venezuela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonzalo Baglivo 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Adrian Rojas
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2028
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Atletico Venezuela are no longer polite ones.
Match14 Aug 2028
Position 14, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match12 Aug 2028
A 0‑3 beating by Carabobo was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match12 Aug 2028
8 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 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roberto Casseres and Atletico Venezuela agree another 1 years.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Darwin Murillo 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
Crisis
Match5 Aug 2028
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atletico Venezuela has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Agustín Zapata out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atletico Venezuela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Rafael Moreno is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.51 with 23 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A move Fernando Ortiz 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. Fernando Ortiz is living that version at Atletico Venezuela, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Adrian Rojas: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atletico Venezuela have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match5 Aug 2028
7 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces13 Dec 2027
The mood at Atletico Venezuela has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match13 Dec 2027
Position 14 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market13 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 Atletico Venezuela can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Dec 2027
The offer from Llaneros for Carlos Murillo 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.
Squad13 Dec 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 Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Gabriel 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
Squad9 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Roberto Casseres out for 109 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atletico Venezuela will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market9 Aug 2027
Carlos Murillo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Venezuela they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Gabriel 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.
Squad9 Aug 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 Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Victor Soteldo
“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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Marked 8.25 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
Supporters make their feelings known about Rafael Moreno
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Atletico Venezuela would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.