Marked for Salomon Otero
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad2 Aug 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Aug 2027
32 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Zulia have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Jun 2027
No end in sight to Zulia's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zulia has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Jun 2027
7 matches without a goal for Zulia
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Zulia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jun 2027
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.
Squad28 Jun 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 ratings28 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Jun 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Elly Owande has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zulia 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Jun 2027
The wait goes on for Zulia
11 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.
Match19 Jun 2027
10 unbeaten for Zulia
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Zulia did not have in the autumn.
Match19 Jun 2027
6 matches without a goal for Zulia
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Jun 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zulia have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch21 Jun 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 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alejandro Castillo and Zulia agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Jun 2027
Atletico Venezuela arrived with $1.0M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Match12 Jun 2027
The wait goes on for Zulia
10 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.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $1.0M sale of Fernando Soteldo
He is going to Atletico Venezuela, the club has $1.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Match12 Jun 2027
Still nobody has beaten Zulia
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match12 Jun 2027
Zulia cannot find the net
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.
Squad14 Jun 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
The fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Llaneros drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Alejandro Castillo from Llaneros for $110.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zulia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match15 May 2027
5 matches without a win for Zulia
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Zulia are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 May 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.
Squad17 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Yeferson 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
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Adriangel Torrealba, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brayan Velarde commits to Zulia for another 3 years.
Squad12 Apr 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.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
At 21 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Sergio Herrera’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zulia.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Sergio Herrera was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
47 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
“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.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad5 Apr 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Richard Rincon
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Richard Rincon has come out of that comparison in the side, and Zulia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The captaincy has been taken off David Soteldo. Zulia will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Feb 2027
Zulia through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Mineros de Guayana, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
No sign of nerves from Junior Castillo at 18 — 7.89
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Junior Castillo did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 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.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
Zulia supporters have found a favourite in Elly Owande
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Elly Owande 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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.
Loan watch1 Mar 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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Too much change too quickly at Zulia
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Salomon Otero dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Zulia
5 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.
Squad25 Jan 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Graduation day at Zulia
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Salomon Otero 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriel Casseres 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cristian Moreno is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market25 Jan 2027
One of our own: Victor Rondon joins the Zulia first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Victor Rondon is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
No investment in the facilities at Zulia
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
David Soteldo 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Machis 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
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Andres Martinez damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
David Soteldo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Salomon Otero
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Salomon Otero has come out of that comparison in the side, and Zulia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work