Marked for Darwin Herrera
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match27 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
7 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 Mar 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Llaneros
7 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
The phone has started ringing about Darwin Rondon again, and this time the name on the line is Stromsgodset. Llaneros are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match27 Mar 2027
Estudiantes de Merida left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Cristian 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Erick Sarmiento 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“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
Squad22 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Richard Martinez at 20 — 7.65
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Richard Martinez did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market15 Feb 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Richard Osorio wants continental football; whether Llaneros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Richard Osorio 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Cristian 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.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match6 Feb 2027
7 matches without a win for Llaneros
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Llaneros are no longer polite ones.
Match6 Feb 2027
Llaneros leaking at the back
6 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.
Squad8 Feb 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Darwin Herrera has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Llaneros.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Darwin Herrera at his very best
Marked 8.01. 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
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Luis Murillo breaks a bone — 122 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Aug 2026
Llaneros say no — this time
The offer from Maccabi Tel Aviv for Darwin Herrera 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
David Castillo 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
Match8 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Aragua, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Richard Osorio and Llaneros agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Richard Osorio 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 ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Richard Osorio, and the manager let it.