Marked for Roberto Murillo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Murillo
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Luis Rosales 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 Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Murillo
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Murillo 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Luis Rosales 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Murillo
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Diego 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Roberto Murillo damages knee ligaments — 86 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Francisco Cordova 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlos Rincon, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Murillo
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zulia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Diego 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
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Murillo
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Murillo 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Victor Moreno has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zulia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Murillo
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Darwin Rosales
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberto Murillo
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zulia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Aug 2026
Shakhter come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zulia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Murillo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Herrera 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Roberto Murillo and Zulia agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match1 Aug 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zamora defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.