Marked for Benjamin Beausejour
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2028
Carlo Villanueva 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Heitor 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 dugout27 Nov 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santiago Monzón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jan 2028
The offer from Admira Wacker for Yerko Leiva 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Union La Calera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Pablo Salomoni 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.
Squad17 Jan 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 Union La Calera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Felipe Ogaz
“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 dugout17 Jan 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Union La Calera told Juan Pablo Salomoni something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market17 Jan 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ariel Cáceres may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Camilo Moya knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Union La Calera, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Jan 2028
The name of Kevin Méndez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Union La Calera say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Alan Brítez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Union La Calera 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
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Martín Arancibia damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Sep 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 Union La Calera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market13 Sep 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Benjamin Beausejour 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.
Market13 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sebastian Bravo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match11 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Ñublense, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
Camilo Moya is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Brítez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.