Marked for Bryan Carrasco
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Dec 2029
Mateo Cienfuegos damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Match27 Nov 2029
A European lesson for Palestino
1‑2 against Botafogo. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Edson keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Palestino may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market3 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julián Fernández and Palestino agree another 2 years.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
$2.0M on the table at Palestino
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Market3 Dec 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ariel Martínez has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Palestino.
The terraces3 Dec 2029
Everybody has an opinion about Bryan Carrasco
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Nov 2029
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Squad12 Nov 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mateo Cienfuegos
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Palestino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Nov 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 Palestino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Nov 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Simón Pinto and Palestino agree another 3 years.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Jonathan Benítez 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.
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces12 Nov 2029
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
5.25. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Oct 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mateo Cienfuegos
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Palestino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match2 Oct 2029
Palestino come up short in Europe
1‑3 away to the standard of Artigas. 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.
Market8 Oct 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match2 Oct 2029
The wait goes on for Palestino
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dilan Zúñiga and Palestino agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tiziano Arce Quirino is living that version at Palestino, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
$2.0M on the table at Palestino
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The terraces8 Oct 2029
Everybody has an opinion about Bryan Carrasco
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2029
Palestino come up short in Europe
1‑2 away to the standard of Botafogo. 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.
The terraces24 Sep 2029
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 38 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad24 Sep 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Palestino may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market24 Sep 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Cañete wants continental football; whether Palestino can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Julián Fernández, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Sep 2029
12 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
The terraces24 Sep 2029
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
5.48. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Jonathan Benítez, 37, rolls back the years — 8.11
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market13 Aug 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Antonio Ceza wants continental football; whether Palestino can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Match11 Aug 2029
It finished 3‑1, and it was Ezequiel Cañete’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Palestino.
Squad13 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Bryan Carrasco
“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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Ariel Martínez 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
11 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
The terraces13 Aug 2029
Everybody has an opinion about Bryan Carrasco
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Jul 2029
“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 Jul 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Jul 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 Palestino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Jul 2029
The Iquique deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Evans Oppong reports back to Palestino with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“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.
Match21 Jul 2029
Santiago Wanderers left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Palestino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ariel Martínez 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.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
4.17. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jul 2029
Evans Oppong hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Palestino can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastián Pérez and Palestino agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Palestino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Benítez 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Bryan Carrasco
“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.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.58 on the card, and the Palestino support went home talking about one name.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Palestino sign 7 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Match30 Jun 2029
It needed Nelson Da Silva to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Antofagasta, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market2 Jul 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Palestino has been clear about where Santiago Martínez stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Palestino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 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.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Ezequiel Cañete was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.82. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings14 May 2029
A performance of 8.73 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Palestino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronnie Fernández 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.
Squad14 May 2029
A promise honoured for Vitinho
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Palestino told Vitinho something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The terraces14 May 2029
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Marked 5.78, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Apr 2029
Julián Fernández 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonathan Benítez, and the manager let it.
Match21 Apr 2029
Universidad Catolica left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Palestino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ariel Martínez 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Jonathan Benítez dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The terraces23 Apr 2029
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Marked 5.64, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Marked 5.67. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Marked 5.80. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2029
Julián Fernández 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 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bryan Carrasco, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Ronnie Fernández 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.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Marked 7.68 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Palestino had the best player on the pitch.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Ezequiel Cañete has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Palestino 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
Crisis
Squad26 Feb 2029
Julián Fernández 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
No hiding place for Vitinho
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitinho, and the manager let it.
Match24 Feb 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Too much change too quickly at Palestino
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The terraces26 Feb 2029
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.