Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Darluis Paz 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 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.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Estudiantes de Caracas? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jesús González 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darluis Paz 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 did not go to Estudiantes de Caracas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mineros de Guayana and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mineros de Guayana, another week without a signature from Juan Campos.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deal that would have taken Yeferson Rincon to Atletico Venezuela has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Mineros de Guayana with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darluis Paz 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mineros de Guayana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jeremías Vargas 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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Darluis Paz 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mineros de Guayana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Darluis Paz and Mineros de Guayana agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Darluis Paz 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 did not go to Estudiantes de Caracas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mineros de Guayana and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mineros de Guayana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mineros de Guayana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darluis Paz 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.
Gabriel Herrera 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.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Mineros de Guayana will not try tonight.
Two goals and a mark of 7.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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 needed Juan Méndez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Estudiantes de Merida, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“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 Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
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. Darluis Paz 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 1‑0 win over Deportivo Tachira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Jun 2035
Jesús Figueroa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. 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.
“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 Mineros de Guayana, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“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.
Player ratings7 May 2035
Yohandry Lacruz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 May 2035
A place in the month's best eleven for Juan Méndez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Juan Méndez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mineros de Guayana have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Atletico Venezuela go through and Mineros de Guayana go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces26 Feb 2035
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 15 of the 31 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mineros de Guayana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Maiker Rivas 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.
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 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mineros de Guayana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomás Zamora and Mineros de Guayana agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Darluis Paz 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Mineros de Guayana will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mineros de Guayana can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Yeferson Rincon reports back to Mineros de Guayana with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Darluis Paz 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.
The name of Salomon Rondon has come up in conversations Mineros de Guayana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
“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 Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Petar Cerin has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabriel Herrera has just signed for Mineros de Guayana, and for once the answer mattered.
In brief
SquadMaiker Rivas falls out with a teammate over standards
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mineros de Guayana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Darluis Paz and Mineros de Guayana agree another 2 years.
Darluis Paz 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mineros de Guayana, another week without a signature from Jeremías Vargas.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Metropolitanos will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mineros de Guayana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jesús González and Mineros de Guayana agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darluis Paz 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fernando Rosales. 1‑0 against Metropolitanos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
0‑1 against Estudiantes de Caracas, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces27 Feb 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 33 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mineros de Guayana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Darluis Paz 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 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Deportivo Tachira? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.