Marked for Jared Ulloa
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alianza Lima can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Oct 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 Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market18 Oct 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alianza Lima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Burlamaqui 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
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 Guillermo Viscarra is on it.
Market18 Oct 2027
Enzo Borletti is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Alianza Lima has been clear about where Enzo Borletti stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Alianza Lima have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Luis Advíncula knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alianza Lima, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager makes Jared Ulloa a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alianza Lima. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Lucas Barbosa out for 14 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alianza Lima will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alianza Lima is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Guillermo Viscarra 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.
Squad27 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 Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at Alianza Lima
6 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
Eric Meza 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
Alianza Lima have made Matías Succar available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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 Gianfranco Chávez is on it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Jared Ulloa gets it from the manager
“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
Steady
Match12 Jun 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Juan Aurich, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Alianza Lima did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alianza Lima people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match14 Jun 2027
Alianza Lima are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 37 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market14 Jun 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Lucas Barbosa 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 targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Melgar have kept their man, and Alianza Lima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillermo Viscarra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Jun 2027
A 2‑1 win over Ayacucho, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alianza Lima can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer from Melgar for Federico Girotti was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Jhoao Velásquez, 21, 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 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Lucas Barbosa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market7 Jun 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alianza Lima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Alianza Lima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
60 days out for Donato Reynaldo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alianza Lima will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Rapid Wien moved on, Federico Girotti reports back to Alianza Lima, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad7 Sep 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 Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gaspar Gentile and Alianza Lima agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Viscarra 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
Luis Ramos has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alianza Lima 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.