From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Dec 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anzoátegui they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
The offer went to Estudiantes de Merida this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Caracas wanted more than $120.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Anzoátegui asked and Orlando City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Juan Silgado in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anzoátegui this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Anzoátegui training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Velasco 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Luis González
“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 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market21 Dec 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Luis González may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anzoátegui lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Anzoátegui offered $2.2M; UCV said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad14 Dec 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 Anzoátegui this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Marítimo de La Guaira have kept their man, and Anzoátegui go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Juan Silgado
“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.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Orlando City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Cruzeiro have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Guillermo Marín has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Anzoátegui 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Emerson Ruíz may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
Abrahan Moreno damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market7 Dec 2026
The offer from UCV for Guillermo Marín 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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
The offer went to UCV this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Anzoátegui offered $2.0M; Monagas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.4M — a club that wants Miguel Pernía enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Juan Silgado 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Anzoátegui training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Velasco 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Nov 2026
Abrahan Moreno damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad30 Nov 2026
José Caraballo 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Anzoátegui training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Velasco 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 90% of the Anzoátegui income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Pedro Álvarez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Anzoátegui 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Wilbert Hernández’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anzoátegui lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad23 Nov 2026
José Caraballo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Emerson Ruíz
“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
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anzoátegui lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad16 Nov 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 Anzoátegui this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Antony Velasco 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.
The dugout16 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 Guillermo Marín is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Lisandro Pérez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Anzoátegui say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anzoátegui lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anzoátegui they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Nov 2026
José Caraballo 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Anzoátegui training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Velasco 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Antony Velasco
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Pumpido trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Lisandro Pérez is on it.
The dugout9 Nov 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anzoátegui lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of José Lovera
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 90% of the Anzoátegui income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Pumpido trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Pedro Álvarez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Anzoátegui 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Anzoátegui will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market2 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Wilbert Hernández’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy goes to Pablo Bonilla. It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
Juan Silgado in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anzoátegui this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Anzoátegui training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Velasco 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ángel Gomes pulls a muscle — 18 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Anzoátegui
13 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market26 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Caraballo signs something — a contract at Anzoátegui or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Juan Silgado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Antony Velasco 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Guillermo Marín has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Anzoátegui 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 dugout19 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
The name of Lisandro Pérez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Anzoátegui say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anzoátegui they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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 Anzoátegui, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Oct 2026
José Caraballo 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pedro Álvarez and Anzoátegui agree another 3 years.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Juan Silgado
“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 dugout12 Oct 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 Lisandro Pérez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
Gabriel Fuentes damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Oct 2026
José Caraballo 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
José Lovera 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Antony Velasco 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 110% of everything Anzoátegui earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Anzoátegui lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Sep 2026
José Caraballo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Anzoátegui
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antony Velasco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Anzoátegui are still strangers to each other
13 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.
The dugout28 Sep 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 Edanyilber Navas is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Gabriel Fuentes damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad21 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 Anzoátegui this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Guillermo Marín has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Anzoátegui 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes José Lovera a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Anzoátegui. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market21 Sep 2026
The name of Lisandro Pérez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Anzoátegui say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad21 Sep 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Anzoátegui the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gabriel Fuentes
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Anzoátegui lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Anzoátegui is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Anzoátegui training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antony Velasco 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 dugout14 Sep 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 Lisandro Pérez is on it.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
José Lovera has been promised minutes
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 José Lovera has written the date down.
Market14 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Antony Velasco’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ángel Gomes 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Edanyilber Navas plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Sep 2026
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Anzoátegui lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Juan Silgado 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Antony Velasco 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lisandro Pérez commits to Anzoátegui for another 3 years.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Emerson Ruíz
“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 dugout7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market7 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Wilbert Hernández’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
The small margins put Anzoátegui out
Out, 1‑2 to Academia Puerto Cabello, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Juan Silgado in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Anzoátegui this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Pumpido, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.83, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Anzoátegui are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Carlos Rondon to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The form table has caught José Lovera
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout31 Aug 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 Edanyilber Navas is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
A 4‑1 win over Deportivo La Guaira, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.26, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Pedro Álvarez pops up at the right end — 7.93
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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 Anzoátegui this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Juan Saab
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of José Lovera
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A masterclass from Juan Saab
Marked 8.65 — 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Anzoátegui
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antony Velasco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
A 3‑2 win over Barquisimeto, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match12 Aug 2026
Anzoátegui win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 124th minute. Barquisimeto will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market17 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anzoátegui they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Guillermo Marín has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad17 Aug 2026
José Caraballo 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Leonardo Ortíz has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Antony Velasco 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Lisandro Pérez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Anzoátegui they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lisandro Pérez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad10 Aug 2026
José Caraballo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antony Velasco and Anzoátegui agree another 4 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Junior Herrera has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Osorio is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” José Caraballo and Anzoátegui agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
José Caraballo 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Anzoátegui
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antony Velasco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on José Caraballo's contract
36 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Anzoátegui
12 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Gabriel Fuentes has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Anzoátegui.