From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Nov 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 Audax Italiano can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Matías Sánchez 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
At 23 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Troyansky was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Troyansky, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Diego Andrada gets picked when it counts
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 Diego Andrada is on it.
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From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Matías Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Michael Vadulli 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Nicolás Aedo gets picked when it counts
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 Nicolás Aedo is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Audax Italiano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Marcelo Ortiz 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Troyansky was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Audax Italiano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Bryan Soto a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Audax Italiano. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Word from the training ground: Cristóbal Muñoz
The sharpest man in every session this week, by all accounts. Lines like this run the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Nov 2026
Nicolás Aedo hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Audax Italiano can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Matías Sánchez 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 Audax Italiano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Troyansky 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
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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nicolás Orellana 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Audax Italiano. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matías Sánchez 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Vadulli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Paolo Guajardo, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Diego Andrada gets picked when it counts
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 Diego Andrada is on it.
The dugout2 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonathan Villagrán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Audax Italiano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tomás Ahumada pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Matías Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Agustín Zamorano is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Troyansky was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Franco Troyansky trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Damián Pizarro: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Audax Italiano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Damián Pizarro is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad19 Oct 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 Audax Italiano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Villagrán is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Matías Sánchez 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
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michael Vadulli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Bryan Soto 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 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 Gonzalo Ontivero is on it.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Diego Coelho keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Audax Italiano say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Matías Sánchez 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
Tomás Ahumada has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Franco Troyansky 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Diego Coelho is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Diego Coelho has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout5 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marcelo Ortiz 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 18 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Franco Troyansky 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Diego Coelho 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Diego Coelho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.70. 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 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Coelho. 3‑1 against Iquique, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Michael Vadulli 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
No time for Iquique to settle
The goal that put Iquique ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Audax Italiano equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
In brief
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Squad
Audax Italiano are still strangers to each other
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Felipe Salomoni asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Audax Italiano did not have in the autumn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Matías Sánchez 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Audax Italiano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Troyansky 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Diego Coelho’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Audax Italiano.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Alexis Suazo kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Gonzalo Ontivero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Audax Italiano 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Matías Sánchez 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 Sep 2026
Words at Audax Italiano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Troyansky 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
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Federico Mateos is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Diego Coelho
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Diego Coelho has come out of that comparison in the side, and Audax Italiano have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Diego Andrada has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Audax Italiano 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
Federico Mateos had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Union La Calera were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.09, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match29 Aug 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Audax Italiano are no longer polite ones.
Match29 Aug 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Matías Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ariel Uribe beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Michael Vadulli 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
Bryan Soto 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Union La Calera ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tomás Ahumada decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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 Audax Italiano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Federico Mateos 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Nicolás Aedo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. O'Higgins had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match19 Aug 2026
Late, late show earns Audax Italiano a point
Minute 87, against Union La Calera, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Iquique, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Diego Andrada takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Diego Andrada provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Matías Sánchez 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Audax Italiano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Mateos 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Diego Monreal
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The formation has left Matías Sánchez behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Audax Italiano will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Alexis Suazo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
5‑2, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Diego Coelho, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Marcelo Ortiz 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Audax Italiano and Union Espanola, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.68, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivan Riquelme 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
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from Hawke's Bay United for Favian Loyola 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marcelo Ortiz and Audax Italiano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Diego Coelho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Mateos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 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 Audax Italiano can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Audax Italiano, another week without a signature from Raimundo Rebolledo.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Marcelo Ortiz's contract
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It needed Paolo Guajardo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Colo-Colo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Looking ahead
A reunion for Ariel Uribe
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The dugout
Oliver Rojas does not fit this one