It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portuguesa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Portuguesa the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
0‑1 away to the standard of Cortulua. 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.
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.
Jonathan 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Moisés Acuña.
Jonathan 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Portuguesa training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Portuguesa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over Atletico Venezuela, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Jonathan Cañete was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Moisés Acuña's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Gonzalo Salega was at the centre of it, Estudiantes de Caracas were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Jonathan 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gonzalo Salega. 3‑2 against Estudiantes de Caracas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Portuguesa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar González 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.