The Zulia Chronicle
Match2 Jun 2027
Zulia through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Caracas, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match5 Jun 2027
The wait goes on for Zulia
9 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Darwin Castillo decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Market7 Jun 2027
Luis Ramirez 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 The request is on a desk at Zulia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Alejandro Machis: 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.” Zulia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match5 Jun 2027
Still nobody has beaten Zulia
The unbeaten run reaches 8. 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 ratings7 Jun 2027
Sergio Herrera runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Jun 2027
Zulia cannot find the net
4 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Zulia
Richard Rincon 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.
In brief
- Market The Fernando Soteldo conversation is coming
- Player ratings The afternoon belonged to David Soteldo
- Squad Adriangel Torrealba named in the team of the month