Marked for Alejandro Rodríguez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Johan Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel Sánchez, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 Alexis Manyoma is on it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fernando Álvarez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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 Deportivo Cali will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel Sánchez, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Alexis Manyoma has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Junior next, and one man in the Deportivo Cali dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alejandro Rodríguez signs something — a contract at Deportivo Cali or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Gustavo Cuéllar’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Deportivo Cali.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.15 — 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Carlos Sinisterra kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Avilés Hurtado
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Johar Mejía beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Johar Mejía finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Deportivo Cali have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Reynoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Léyser Chaverra, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Deportivo Cali are still strangers to each other
17 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nicolás Benedetti is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Mateo Puerta has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Tití Rodríguez 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 Tití Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Juan José Tello’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Deportivo Cali needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alejandro Rodríguez has written the date down.