Marked for Alejandro Arango
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Jun 2038
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market28 Jun 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes de Caracas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jun 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes de Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Yolfran Caricote 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 Jun 2038
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad28 Jun 2038
The manager has not finished forgetting Johan Barrios's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match26 Jun 2038
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market28 Jun 2038
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Roberto Otero signs something — a contract at Estudiantes de Caracas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Alejandro Arango damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market16 Nov 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes de Caracas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Alejandro Arango damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad9 Nov 2037
“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.
Match9 Nov 2037
Position 2, 61 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match6 Nov 2037
2‑3 away to the standard of Colo-Colo. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Market9 Nov 2037
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Estudiantes de Caracas, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Feb 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes de Caracas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Alejandro Arango damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Squad23 Feb 2037
“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.
Market23 Feb 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes de Caracas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Mateo Bustamante 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Feb 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes de Caracas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Alejandro Arango 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.
Market16 Feb 2037
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Estudiantes de Caracas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes de Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Yolfran Caricote 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.
Match14 Feb 2037
0‑1 to Zamora, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Feb 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Feb 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Arango
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes de Caracas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Feb 2037
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad9 Feb 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Estudiantes de Caracas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match7 Feb 2037
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.
Squad9 Feb 2037
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.
The terraces9 Feb 2037
At 19 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.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
A defender's afternoon for Mateo Ureta
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Feb 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Arango
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes de Caracas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Miguel Gonzalez out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes de Caracas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad2 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes de Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Feb 2037
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Bustamante 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.
Match31 Jan 2037
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Savarino. 3‑1 against Atletico Venezuela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market2 Feb 2037
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christian Gómez has his answer from Estudiantes de Caracas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings2 Feb 2037
Ninety minutes of David Machis at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Estudiantes de Caracas.
Player ratings2 Feb 2037
Pablo Silva turns it into his own net
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Estudiantes de Caracas deserved better, and so did he.
Player ratings2 Feb 2037
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jan 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alejandro Arango
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes de Caracas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jan 2037
A fracture rules Miguel Gonzalez out for 25 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes de Caracas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Jan 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes de Caracas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom26 Jan 2037
Estudiantes de Caracas moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Gabriel Gonzalez, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad26 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes de Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom26 Jan 2037
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Campos 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.
Market26 Jan 2037
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Osorio has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market26 Jan 2037
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alejandro Otero has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.