Marked for Daniel Vargas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Mar 2032
1‑2 against Deportes Limache, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad22 Mar 2032
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
A defender's goal wins it for Union Espanola — 7.45
1 for Flavio Moya, marked 7.45, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.65 for the rest of it.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
Ferdinand Kanga: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Union Espanola have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Ariel Uribe 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 Union Espanola this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match20 Mar 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Flavio Moya. 1‑0 against Everton de Viña del Mar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Both jobs done by Ariel Uribe — 6.88
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.88, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Union Espanola
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
Machur Yunes is free to find somewhere else
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Mar 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against San Marcos de Arica, and it could have been more.
Squad15 Mar 2032
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market15 Mar 2032
Only the photograph left for Machur Yunes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Machur Yunes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Union Espanola the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Union Espanola may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Joaquín Ferrara 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.
Match13 Mar 2032
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Union Espanola and San Marcos de Arica, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Ariel Uribe 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
Steady
Squad19 Jan 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Vargas
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Union Espanola lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Jan 2032
“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 Union Espanola, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jan 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Union Espanola is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom19 Jan 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Machur Yunes 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.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Ariel Uribe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Franco Rodríguez 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.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
Machur Yunes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jan 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Vargas
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Union Espanola lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jan 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union Espanola they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom12 Jan 2032
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sebastián Estay has agreed terms with Ñublense for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Sebastián Castillo 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words at Union Espanola training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ariel Uribe 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.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
Union Espanola asked and Coquimbo Unido said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market12 Jan 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Union Espanola, another week without a signature from Ferdinand Kanga.
Market12 Jan 2032
Union Espanola spent the window trying to move Pablo Aránguiz on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Market12 Jan 2032
7 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Union Espanola money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jan 2032
Daniel Vargas 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.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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 Union Espanola, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Joaquín Ferrara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
$46.0K was the most the club would pay and Universidad de Chile were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Words at Union Espanola training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ariel Uribe 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.
Market5 Jan 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Union Espanola have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
A loan enquiry to Colo-Colo: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
Colo-Colo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Sep 2031
“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 Union Espanola, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
“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.
Market29 Sep 2031
Only the photograph left for Sergio Barajas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergio Barajas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Union Espanola the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Joaquín Ferrara 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ariel Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Iván Maldonado
“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.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
Tiago Piris knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tiago Piris trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Sep 2031
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Union Espanola will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout8 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Joaquín Ferrara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ariel Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead8 Sep 2031
Cobreloa next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Daniel Vargas is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Union Espanola will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad8 Sep 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luis Meneses commits to Union Espanola for another 4 years.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tiago Piris, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
Flavio Moya 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.
Market8 Sep 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Union Espanola, another week without a signature from Tiago Piris.