Marked for Michael Nike
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Sep 2027
20 matches without a win for Patriotas
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Patriotas are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Patriotas interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Felipe Herrera keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Patriotas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Sep 2027
AVS come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Patriotas did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match4 Sep 2027
7 matches without a goal for Patriotas
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad6 Sep 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 Patriotas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch6 Sep 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 Patriotas, and 5 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Kevin Álvarez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Patriotas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Patriotas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match7 Jun 2027
Patriotas sink to position 19
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match5 Jun 2027
7 matches without a win for Patriotas
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Patriotas are no longer polite ones.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 Patriotas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Jun 2027
Patriotas cannot find the net
4 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.
Squad7 Jun 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 Patriotas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Patriotas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Álvarez 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Nobody at Patriotas 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
Uneasy
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 May 2027
The cup run ends for Patriotas
0‑1 against Millonarios, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match10 May 2027
Patriotas are in real trouble now
Position 19, 13 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.
Squad10 May 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 Patriotas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonnier Torres and Patriotas agree another 4 years.
Match8 May 2027
It needed Michael Nike to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Envigado, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Patriotas out
Out, 0‑1 to Millonarios, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Patriotas's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Patriotas has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Patriotas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Patriotas
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match22 Aug 2026
Jaguares left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Esteven Salguero 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Javier Angulo
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
There were 6 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Brayan 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months and counting on Michael Nike
Still no offer on the table, and Michael Nike’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Freyn Macleyn 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for Patriotas?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Deportivo Cali? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Esteven Salguero asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.