From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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 Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
7.74, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Atletico Nacional had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” David Murillo commits to Atletico Nacional for another 2 years.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sergio Diaz on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The form table has caught Milton Casco
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
Gustavo Torres 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 Gustavo Torres trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Franco Armani 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Atletico Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Torres 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.59 on the card, and the Atletico Nacional support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
César Haydar 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Gustavo Torres dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Sergio Diaz on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
7.87, 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match5 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Atletico Nacional have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Alfredo Morelos ran the middle of the pitch — 6.76
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.76, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jorman Campuzano. 2‑0 against Deportivo Cali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Elías Cabrera was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
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 Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.35, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Atletico Nacional did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 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 Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Atletico Nacional and Real Cartagena, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Market31 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Atletico Nacional have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Nicolás Rodríguez at his very best
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Atletico Nacional.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
A 3‑2 win over Deportes Quindio, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Cortulua, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match19 Aug 2026
Nicolás Rodríguez wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Nicolás Rodríguez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Deportes Quindio went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.28, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Edwin Echeverría at 17 — 8.39
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Edwin Echeverría did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Cristian Uribe has agreed terms with Alianza Petrolera for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Cristian Arango and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Atletico Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Manuel Guerrero 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
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.84, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Edwin Echeverría, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 9.30
A mark of 9.30 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Cristian Arango 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Atletico Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Manuel Guerrero 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kevin Cataño had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 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 Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Oscar Barreto would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Oscar Barreto is living that version at Atletico Nacional, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
7.11, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Atletico Nacional had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
Franco Armani wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atletico Nacional hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jorman Campuzano wants continental football; whether Atletico Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Armani and Atletico Nacional agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Cristian Arango 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Atletico Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Manuel Guerrero 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Deportivo Pereira had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.