Marked for Alejandro Herrera
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Jun 2036
Anger at Fortaleza CEIF spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match21 Jun 2036
Beaten 0‑3 by America de Cali, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad23 Jun 2036
There were 8 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.
Market23 Jun 2036
“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.
Match21 Jun 2036
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Fortaleza CEIF are no longer polite ones.
The dugout23 Jun 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Fortaleza CEIF may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match21 Jun 2036
Fortaleza CEIF are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad23 Jun 2036
David Reyes 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Jun 2036
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Sep 2035
Tobías Schilman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
Juan Cabrera 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.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Wages eat 85% of everything Fortaleza CEIF earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
Tobías Schilman has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market10 Sep 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fortaleza CEIF, another week without a signature from Juan José Guevara.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Lopez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Sep 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Thomas Oliveri’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market10 Sep 2035
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Fortaleza CEIF money.
Squad10 Sep 2035
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Fortaleza CEIF will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jan 2035
“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.
Match27 Jan 2035
No end in sight to Fortaleza CEIF's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fortaleza CEIF has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout29 Jan 2035
“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.
Squad29 Jan 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom29 Jan 2035
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Match27 Jan 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Renato Morales 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.
The dugout29 Jan 2035
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.