Marked for Ronaldo Pájaro
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad5 Oct 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Johan Martínez
“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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Cortulua, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ronaldo Pájaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gustavo Cuéllar is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Juan Ospina: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 9 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Avilés Hurtado 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Gustavo Cuéllar
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Juan Ospina left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Deportivo Cali, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Ronaldo Pájaro is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Alejandro Rodríguez: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ángelo Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ronaldo Pájaro’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Deportivo Cali.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ronaldo Pájaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
Match19 Aug 2026
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
In brief
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Player ratings
From twelve yards, and Néider Ospina misses
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
No place in the plan for Gustavo Cuéllar