It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maiker Rivas 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Méndez 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Juan Méndez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
André 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.
Aragua paid $84.0K and Llaneros took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Trujillanos tried to reorganise, Llaneros did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Savarino, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Cordova 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.
Position 15 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. José Pinto was one of the reasons people came, and $1.7M does not replace that by itself.
Renzo Zambrano 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.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $200.0K for Sergio Murillo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Estudiantes de Caracas will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yeferson Osorio provided it, and the 7.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André 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.
A 2‑1 win over Estudiantes de Caracas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
André 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.
“I watch every Llaneros game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Estudiantes de Merida runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
Marked 5.57. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Llaneros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
André 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.
At 20 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.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The deal that would have taken Sergio Murillo to Mineros de Guayana has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Llaneros with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
André 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Rincon 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Sergio Murillo again, and this time the name on the line is Mineros de Guayana. Llaneros are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Llaneros know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Murillo 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.
David Rincon 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.
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.
The offer from Zamora for Carlos Rincon was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
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.
A new face in his position, and Carlos Rincon suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Llaneros have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
David Rincon 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Llaneros told Victor Soteldo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
SquadDarwin Osorio has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.