Marked for Darwin Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jan 2030
A fracture rules David Martinez out for 95 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Jan 2030
2‑3 to Carabobo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Miguel Martinez 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Darwin Otero, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
A mark of 5.33 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
5.45. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
5.54 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Nov 2029
Only the photograph left for Sergio Murillo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergio Murillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Llaneros the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Christian Gómez 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 Nov 2029
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Otero 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 May 2029
No end in sight to Llaneros's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces14 May 2029
The mood at Llaneros has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match14 May 2029
Llaneros are in real trouble now
Position 16, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 May 2029
Sergio Murillo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Llaneros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 May 2029
Darwin Ramirez: 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.” Llaneros have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 May 2029
Mineros de Guayana left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match12 May 2029
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Llaneros and Mineros de Guayana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Feb 2029
The small margins put Llaneros out
Out, 0‑1 to Caracas, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match24 Feb 2029
Nowhere to hide for Llaneros
0‑3 against Zamora, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
A chastening introduction for Sergio Moreno — 5.49
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.49 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Christian Gómez 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Otero 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.
Match24 Feb 2029
The goals have deserted Llaneros
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Llaneros can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces26 Feb 2029
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.