Marked for Jesus Martinez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jesus Martinez
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Sep 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Moriñigo 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Sep 2029
Jesus Martinez damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Match17 Sep 2029
39 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Richard Franco 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
Squad10 Sep 2029
Jesus Martinez damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
David Algarra: 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.” Universitario Popayan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Sep 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jun 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Freddy Castillo
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Universitario Popayan can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Jun 2029
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Universitario Popayan are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Jun 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Moriñigo 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Juan Cruz Crisafulli is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Universitario Popayan will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Match2 Jun 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 May 2029
19 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad21 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Freddy Castillo
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Universitario Popayan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 May 2029
Rodrigo Moriñigo 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.
Squad21 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Richard Franco, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 May 2029
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Marked 7.99. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match19 May 2029
It needed Fernando Falcao to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Cortulua, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 May 2029
18 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market7 May 2029
“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 Universitario Popayan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 May 2029
There were 87 minutes on the clock and La Equidad had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Universitario Popayan did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Juan Cruz Crisafulli, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match5 May 2029
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad7 May 2029
Richard Franco 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 terraces7 May 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Cruz Crisafulli 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.
Squad7 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Falcao, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad16 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Marked 8.67 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steven Hernández 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Universitario Popayan have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 7. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2029
Miguel Romero breaks a bone — 24 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match17 Mar 2029
15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad19 Mar 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Moriñigo 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.
Match17 Mar 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jesus Martinez. 1‑0 against Union Magdalena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Universitario Popayan had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nahuel Herrera Bach, and the manager let it.
The terraces19 Mar 2029
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Feb 2029
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Juan Cruz Crisafulli, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Moriñigo 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.
The terraces19 Feb 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Cruz Crisafulli 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Richard Franco
“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 ratings19 Feb 2029
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 Feb 2029
5 new faces, and Universitario Popayan are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Fabian Bacca 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Feb 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Jan 2029
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match27 Jan 2029
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Richard Franco 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 Jan 2029
Rodrigo Moriñigo 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 Jan 2029
“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 ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The improving has stalled for Victor Torres
He is 23 and he is exactly the player he was at the turn of the year. That is fine at twenty-eight and it is the beginning of a difficult conversation at his age.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2028
David Palacios damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Match5 Jun 2028
32 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Universitario Popayan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gustavo Vargas has agreed terms with Envigado for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Moriñigo 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 ratings5 Jun 2028
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 May 2028
“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 Universitario Popayan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings29 May 2028
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.68 for the rest of it.
Match27 May 2028
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings29 May 2028
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Steven Hernández 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 May 2028
Adrián Ararat 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 May 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Steven Hernández will call it something else in private.
Match27 May 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad29 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Victor Torres, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
A brace, and José Rodrigues takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. José Rodrigues provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Universitario Popayan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universitario Popayan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match22 Apr 2028
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Moriñigo 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“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 ratings24 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Apr 2028
“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.
Market17 Apr 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Sebastián Macías 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Universitario Popayan did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Steven Hernández 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Victor Torres and Universitario Popayan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Feb 2028
“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 Universitario Popayan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Rodrigo Moriñigo 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Macías, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Adrián Ararat 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Match19 Feb 2028
It needed Victor Torres to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Valledupar, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A mark of 5.75 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Market21 Feb 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nahuel Herrera Bach may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Two goals and a mark of 7.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Market14 Feb 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fernando Falcao wants continental football; whether Universitario Popayan can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match12 Feb 2028
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Feb 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Universitario Popayan and Llaneros, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Jesus Martinez at his very best
Marked 8.60. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Universitario Popayan.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Rodrigues, and the manager let it.
Match29 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jesus Martinez. 1‑0 against Bogota, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Jesus Martinez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Moriñigo 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 ratings31 Jan 2028
Marked 5.58. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Universitario Popayan can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
A chastening introduction for Jefferson Santos — 5.44
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.44 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Universitario Popayan heard it as anything else.
Match22 Jan 2028
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Sebastián Macías 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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match22 Jan 2028
Tigres left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Johan Garcia 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nicolas Gonzalez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.