Marked for Alejandro Machis
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
155 days out for Adrián Martínez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. UCV will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Machis
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UCV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
A brace, and Juan Camilo Zapata takes the afternoon — 8.87
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Camilo Zapata provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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.
Match24 Apr 2027
7 unbeaten for UCV
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation UCV did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at UCV
Carlos Cermeño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Apr 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Camilo Zapata. 2‑0 against Portuguesa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at UCV
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kendrys Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Machis
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UCV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Apr 2027
There were 7 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“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.
Market19 Apr 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UCV is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at UCV
Carlos Cermeño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, UCV do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at UCV
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giancarlo Schiavone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexander González, and the manager let it.
Match17 Apr 2027
It needed Juan Camilo Zapata to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zamora, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Machis
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UCV lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market12 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Maicol Ruiz
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maicol Ruiz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UCV the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play UCV right now
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at UCV
Carlos Cermeño 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A row about effort at UCV
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giancarlo Schiavone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Apr 2027
Deportivo La Guaira made UCV work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Alfonso Simarra
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Apr 2027
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UCV lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Alfonso Simarra: 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.” UCV have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Up for the corner, and Carlos Cermeño delivers — 7.72
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Carlos Cermeño scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tempers go at UCV
Carlos Cermeño 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jean Carlos Polo is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Apr 2027
A 1‑0 win over Real Frontera, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Alejandro Machis 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” UCV may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Mar 2027
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad29 Mar 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 UCV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at UCV
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel De Sousa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Luis Álvarez gets it from the manager
“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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Real Frontera next, and one man in the UCV dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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 dugout29 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moussa Bagayoko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.