Marked for Darwin Martinez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
Alejandro Moreno damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Market25 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad25 Dec 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Yeferson Osorio out for 53 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.
Market14 Aug 2028
Joel Poiso hands in a written request
“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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad14 Aug 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Poiso 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.
Match12 Aug 2028
Portuguesa made Llaneros work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Marked 8.47 — 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
5.78. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zulia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Gabriel Otero is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Bruno Castro 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
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Loan watch
3 goals on loan for Darwin Murillo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 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.
Match30 Jan 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.
Squad1 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
No place for Jose Arango in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jose Arango has his answer from Zulia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Juan Ramirez
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gabriel Otero commits to Zulia for another 3 years.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Estudiantes de Merida to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zulia and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Match30 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Estudiantes de Merida will be the happier side with the point.
Squad1 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.