Marked for Mateo Duque
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jul 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at La Equidad
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at La Equidad is running low.
The terraces29 Jul 2030
Anger at La Equidad spills outside the ground
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Feb 2030
Amaury Torralvo damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
The terraces11 Feb 2030
The mood at La Equidad 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.
Match9 Feb 2030
The wait goes on for La Equidad
13 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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market11 Feb 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around La Equidad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Amaury Torralvo 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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Sebastián Buitrago 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 terraces11 Feb 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeifer Herrera 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.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
La Equidad have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mateo Duque commits to La Equidad for another 3 years.
Squad6 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 May 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 May 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match19 May 2029
6 matches without a win for La Equidad
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around La Equidad are no longer polite ones.
Match19 May 2029
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad21 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Buitrago 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
Crisis
Squad23 Apr 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Vinicius: 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.” La Equidad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Vinicius wants to go home
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and La Equidad know it.
Match21 Apr 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Mar 2029
The wait goes on for La Equidad
18 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 135 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at La Equidad
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at La Equidad is running low.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market2 Apr 2029
Vinicius puts it in writing
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Amaury Torralvo 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.
Match31 Mar 2029
Barranquilla left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Sebastián Buitrago 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Mar 2029
No end in sight to La Equidad's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at La Equidad has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Hansel Zapata breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Diego Ceballos and La Equidad agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Amaury Torralvo 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 terraces5 Mar 2029
At 23 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 ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Mateo Duque
“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 ratings5 Mar 2029
7.66, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. La Equidad had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match3 Mar 2029
A 1‑1 draw with Bogota leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jan 2029
A fracture rules Hansel Zapata out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason La Equidad will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match27 Jan 2029
The wait goes on for La Equidad
8 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market29 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad29 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Buitrago 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.
Match27 Jan 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
Hansel Zapata breaks a bone — 74 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match20 Jan 2029
The wait goes on for La Equidad
7 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.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Luis Caicedo pops up at the right end — 7.30
7.30, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Amaury Torralvo 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 ratings22 Jan 2029
Mateo Duque has a hand in both — 7.68
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.68, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at La Equidad
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad22 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jhon Figueroa, and the manager let it.
Market22 Jan 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Johan Diaz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 Jan 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hector Mina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.