Marked for Bryan Rabello
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at O'Higgins
Omar Carabalí 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The clock did what Deportes Santa Cruz would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosario Central have kept their man, and O'Higgins go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Saúl Salcedo
“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.
Match31 Jul 2027
Deportes La Serena left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Bastián Yáñez 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.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
Esteban Calderón is tired of being somebody else's player
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at O'Higgins where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Palestino until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and O'Higgins will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Mar 2027
The cup run ends for O'Higgins
0‑0 against Santiago Morning, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Diego Carreño: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Felipe Faúndez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Mar 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was David Fernández’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to O'Higgins.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. David Fernández has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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
Match13 Feb 2027
Ñublense will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. O'Higgins were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
David Fernández, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” O'Higgins may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Alan Robledo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
2 academy graduates step up at O'Higgins
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
At 21 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jean Osorio is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Feb 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Juan Valencia has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at O'Higgins this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
7 new faces, and O'Higgins are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at O'Higgins, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Bryan Rabello 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 Bryan Rabello is on it.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Omar Carabalí keeps appearing in other people's back pages. O'Higgins say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Omar Carabalí 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Juan Felipe Quiñones commits to O'Higgins for another 3 years.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Bryan Rabello
“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 dugout18 Jan 2027
Thiago Vecino knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thiago Vecino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Santiago Toloza’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Bryan Rabello: 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.” O'Higgins have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and O'Higgins did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The window shuts on the Diego Valencia deal
O'Higgins ran out of time with Universidad Catolica. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at O'Higgins
Omar Carabalí 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicolás Matamoros is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Audax Italiano wanted more than $150.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Still no offer on the table, and Bastián Yáñez’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” O'Higgins may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Felipe Faúndez is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Omar Carabalí and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Thiago Vecino’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Omar Carabalí 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Joaquín Escobar is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolás Garrido
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at O'Higgins
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Morales was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market28 Sep 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. O'Higgins know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Bryan Rabello has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at O'Higgins 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Deportes Santa Cruz, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match15 Aug 2026
Everton de Viña del Mar will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. O'Higgins were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Rodrigo Godoy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Omar Carabalí and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Juan Francisco Rossel has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means O'Higgins have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Toloza has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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The dugout
Walter Bou is still being punished for one mistake
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Cristian Morales falls out with a teammate over standards