Marked for Darwin Moreno
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Leonel Valencia out for 101 days
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.
Market10 Jul 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.
Squad10 Jul 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch10 Jul 2028
“I did not go to Deportivo Lara to sit and watch. I want to come back to Llaneros and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rafael Casseres, and the manager let it.
Match8 Jul 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 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 The request is on a desk at Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Leonel Valencia 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 ratings12 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch12 Jun 2028
“I did not go to Deportivo Lara to sit and watch. I want to come back to Llaneros and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Squad12 Jun 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Miroslav Benes 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
Crisis
Match13 May 2028
8 matches without a win for Llaneros
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Llaneros are no longer polite ones.
Market15 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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 May 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Leonel Valencia 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.
Loan watch15 May 2028
“I watch every Llaneros game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Deportivo Lara runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match13 May 2028
Mineros de Guayana left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Llaneros
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.
Squad17 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jose Savarino, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Apr 2028
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Llaneros, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad17 Apr 2028
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
Steady
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A brace, and Rafael Casseres takes the afternoon — 8.52
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafael Casseres provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad20 Mar 2028
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Leonel Valencia, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad20 Mar 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jose Savarino 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 terraces20 Mar 2028
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.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Llaneros, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Sarmiento, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
In brief
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Boardroom
Llaneros were not finished after all
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Rafael Casseres
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Boardroom
The Llaneros production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jose Savarino 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Llaneros are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Llaneros, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Erick Sarmiento
“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 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces10 Jan 2028
Anger at Deportivo Lara 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Joel Cáceres breaks a bone — 91 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jan 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 Deportivo Lara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jorge Graterol and Deportivo Lara agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Henry Pernía 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Luis Annese for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Deportivo Lara will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Rafael Murillo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Llaneros 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Llaneros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad10 Jan 2028
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Rafael Casseres keeps the shirt for now, at Llaneros's convenience rather than his own.