Marked for Jose Murillo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 May 2027
The wait goes on for Zulia
6 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 ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 May 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.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“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 Zulia, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad24 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Junior Rondon
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 May 2027
4 matches without a win for Zulia
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zulia are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 May 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.
Squad10 May 2027
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Miguel Moreno, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad10 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Antunes commits to Zulia for another 3 years.
Squad10 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zulia told Jose Murillo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match8 May 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match13 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Zulia do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad15 Mar 2027
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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Wilmar Valencia had Zulia level again within 1 minutes, and Carabobo never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Junior Rondon
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Mar 2027
Stabaek 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Soteldo and Zulia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Zulia
Brayan Velarde 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Zulia do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match6 Mar 2027
Portuguesa made Zulia work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
9 matches without a win for Zulia
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Zulia are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
7.23, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Zulia had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Brayan Velarde asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad22 Feb 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Zulia's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zulia has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Soteldo, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“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; Zulia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match13 Feb 2027
Honours even between Zulia and Caracas
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
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Jose Murillo 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
David Soteldo 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
54 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Andres Martinez damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
OFK Beograd 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
Sergio Herrera 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
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Jose Murillo has come up in conversations Zulia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Daniel Savarino 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.