Marked for Darwin Machis
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jul 2027
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.
Match17 Jul 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Darwin Machis. 2‑1 against Zulia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.71, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of David Moreno at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Atletico Venezuela.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The team sheet said everything about Sergio Herrera
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Sergio Herrera.
Squad19 Jul 2027
One booking too many, and Luis Gonzalez sits out. Atletico Venezuela lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
Squad19 Jul 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market19 Jul 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Carlos Murillo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jul 2027
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Atletico Venezuela are no longer polite ones.
Market12 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Atletico Venezuela, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Luis Gonzalez: 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.
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 Atletico Venezuela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darwin Machis and Atletico Venezuela agree another 3 years.
Match10 Jul 2027
4 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.
Match10 Jul 2027
0‑2 to Deportivo La Guaira, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market12 Jul 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Cordova signs something — a contract at Atletico Venezuela or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 May 2027
Luis Moreno 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 Atletico Venezuela can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
Luis Moreno is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.36 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad24 May 2027
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Ricky 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 ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 May 2027
The afternoon belonged to Luis Moreno
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A debut Oscar Otero will not forget — 7.94
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.94 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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 terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. David Moreno 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Atletico Venezuela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Gonzalez and Atletico Venezuela agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Oscar Otero 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.