The Alianza Petrolera Herald
Squad8 Feb 2027
Camilo Mancilla damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Bryan Urueña breaks a bone — 68 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Feb 2027
Felgueiras come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Alianza Petrolera did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Mauricio Gómez beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Alianza Petrolera
Juan Pablo Vásquez 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
One of our own: Richard Ramirez joins the Alianza Petrolera first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Richard Ramirez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Alianza Petrolera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gleyfer Medina 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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Santiago de Ossa
“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 dugout8 Feb 2027
Rodin Quiñónes gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodin Quiñónes is on it.
In brief
- The dugout Half-satisfied: Hugo Moreno on the draw
- The dugout Cristian Arroyave knocks on the manager's door
- Match Alianza Petrolera and Tigres cancel each other out