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.
Estudiantes de Merida pay $450.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Junior Machis 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Luis 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.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Atletico Venezuela, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricky 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.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Luis Moreno decided otherwise. Estudiantes de Caracas had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
“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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Junior Machis, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Moreno. 4‑3 against Estudiantes de Caracas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Luis Moreno was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.67. 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.
10 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.97, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Luis 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atletico Venezuela and Zulia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Chances created: 14. 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Oscar Otero, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.24
A mark of 8.24 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atletico Venezuela and Estudiantes de Caracas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Luis Moreno was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.79. 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.