Marked for Victor Moreno
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2032
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Yaracuyanos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Yaracuyanos may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market29 Mar 2032
Only the photograph left for Luis Gimenez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Gimenez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Yaracuyanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Víctor Viez 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 Yaracuyanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Ibargüen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
“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.
Market29 Mar 2032
Víctor Viez linked with a move away
The name of Víctor Viez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Yaracuyanos say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
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 2032
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2032
Victor Moreno damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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 dugout22 Mar 2032
“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.
Market22 Mar 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yaracuyanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Víctor Viez 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
Still nobody has beaten Yaracuyanos
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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words at Yaracuyanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Frank Chávez 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
Three points for Yaracuyanos, 1‑0 the final word against Ureña in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2032
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Yaracuyanos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Mar 2032
16 days out for Camilo Vargas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Yaracuyanos will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market15 Mar 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yaracuyanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Víctor Viez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Ibargüen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
Yosmel Gil 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces8 Mar 2032
Supporters organise against the Yaracuyanos board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad8 Mar 2032
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Yaracuyanos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad8 Mar 2032
A fracture rules Camilo Vargas out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Yaracuyanos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market8 Mar 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Yaracuyanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ángel Gomes 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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Víctor Viez 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 Mar 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Elías Bóveda commits to Yaracuyanos for another 4 years.
Player ratings8 Mar 2032
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.54 on the card, and the Yaracuyanos support went home talking about one name.
Match6 Mar 2032
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.