19 Jan 2031
Sunday
Process
233 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

13 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Enzo Taborda out for 102 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colo-Colo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Felipe Loyola’s move to O'Higgins falls through

The deal that would have taken Felipe Loyola to O'Higgins has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Colo-Colo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Market

Giuliano Cerato puts it in writing

“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 The request is on a desk at Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Erick Pulgar: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Matías Fernández is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Antofagasta come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Colo-Colo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lucas Bernabéu arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lucas Bernabéu has, at Colo-Colo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Pulgar 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.

In brief

Back issues
232 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

6 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Felipe Loyola puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Mateo Antoni: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Rodrigo Vargas has said yes to Santiago Wanderers

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colo-Colo have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Colo-Colo turn down Iquique for Víctor Felipe Méndez

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto honoured for the season

The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Colo-Colo had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.

Market

Franco Lobos has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Mateo Antoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A step back for Nicolás Tagliafico at Colo-Colo

Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulises Sánchez 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.

In brief

231 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

30 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Felipe Loyola has said yes to O'Higgins

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colo-Colo have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Adam Bareiro puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Fernando Valenzuela: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Only the photograph left for Simón Ramírez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simón Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Vicente Reyes 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Mateo Antoni wants European nights

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Brayan Cortés

“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 dugout

Bruno Barticciotto 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 Bruno Barticciotto is on it.

In brief

230 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

23 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Colo-Colo refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 74 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Market

Terms done: Franco Lobos is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and O'Higgins waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Erick Pulgar asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Market

Víctor Felipe Méndez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

O'Higgins expected to open talks for Felipe Loyola

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Colo-Colo will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Thiago Vecino

Colo-Colo asked and O'Higgins said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

No deal for Matías Budiño at that price

Colo-Colo offered $24.0K; Universidad de Concepcion 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.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Cerato 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.

In brief

229 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

16 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Colo-Colo book their European place

Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.

Market

Giuliano Cerato has said yes to Antofagasta

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colo-Colo have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Match

Colo-Colo come up short in Europe

1‑2 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.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo agree $1.2M for Manuel Insaurralde

The clubs have shaken hands with Universidad Catolica; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is named among the best

There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Colo-Colo will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.

Market

Víctor Felipe Méndez asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Market

Rodrigo Vargas says no to San Marcos de Arica

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Rodrigo Vargas had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Matías Fernández has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Boardroom

Matías Fernández has agreed to leave Colo-Colo for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

In brief

228 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

9 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

Colo-Colo have won it

This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

21 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto sends Colo-Colo through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Bruno Barticciotto obliged against Universidad Catolica. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Colo-Colo.

Market

Felipe Loyola puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Daniel González

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colo-Colo have done the hard part with Universidad Catolica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Market

Víctor Felipe Méndez agrees terms with Iquique

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto wins it after the whistle should have gone

104 minutes played. Bruno Barticciotto found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Universidad Catolica went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Market

O'Higgins come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Colo-Colo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

In brief

227 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

2 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.67 with 32 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Match

Colo-Colo do the business in Europe

1‑1. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Colo-Colo came through the finding-out well against Cerro Porteno.

Market

Luciano Acosta asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Rodrigo Vargas is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Brayan Cortés stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Brayan Cortés and Colo-Colo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

Juan Pablo De la Reta has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Tomas Meneses attracts admirers

The name of Tomas Meneses has come up in conversations Colo-Colo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

In brief

226 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

25 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Colo-Colo are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 74 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Market

Claudio Aquino is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Gonzalo Requena wants European nights

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.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Squad

Gonzalo Gutiérrez 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.

The dugout

Gonzalo Requena 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 dugout

Vicente Reyes 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 Vicente Reyes is on it.

The dugout

Fernando Valenzuela 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 Fernando Valenzuela has written the date down.

In brief

225 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

18 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Facundo Garcés what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Garcés wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes 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.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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 dugout

Fernando Valenzuela 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.

Squad

International break empties Colo-Colo

5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.

The dugout

When it matters, Facundo Garcés plays

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.

Squad

Brayan Cortés goes off with his country

A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Colo-Colo would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.

Market

Tomás Alarcón linked with a move away

The name of Tomás Alarcón keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Colo-Colo say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Mateo Antoni 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 Mateo Antoni has written the date down.

In brief

224 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

11 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Colo-Colo do the business in Europe

2‑1. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Colo-Colo came through the finding-out well against Defensa y Justicia.

Market

Felipe Loyola asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto scores twice — 8.68

Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Simón Ramírez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes 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.

Squad

Adam Bareiro is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.40 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Salomón Rodríguez wants European nights

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.

Squad

Giuliano Cerato 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 dugout

Brayan Cortés left out for the big one

A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Brayan Cortés will call it something else in private.

In brief

223 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

4 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Brayan Cortés says Colo-Colo went back on their word

“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.

Market

Facundo Garcés 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 Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Vicente Reyes what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Vicente Reyes wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Market

Only the photograph left for Rodrigo Vargas

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodrigo Vargas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Vicente Reyes 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Tagliafico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Gonzalo Requena signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gonzalo Requena and Colo-Colo agree another 5 years.

The dugout

Felipe Loyola 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 Felipe Loyola is on it.

The dugout

Mateo Antoni 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 Colo-Colo, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

222 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

28 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

32 goals and a season average of 7.67. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto lights up a European night for Colo-Colo

2‑2 against Defensa y Justicia, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Bruno Barticciotto was at the centre of the description.

Match

Colo-Colo up to position 2

74 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto scores twice — 8.69

Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Brayan Cortés keeps Colo-Colo in it on his own

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.

Market

Claudio Aquino is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Lautaro Cueli puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

In brief

  • Squad Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
  • Player ratings Ninety minutes of Nahuel Curcio at his very best
  • The dugout Mateo Antoni gets it from the manager
221 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Gonzalo Requena keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Giuliano Cerato puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Facundo Garcés 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.

Market

Mateo Antoni has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuliano Cerato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Bastián Yáñez

“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 dugout

Vicente Reyes 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 Vicente Reyes is on it.

The dugout

Jonathan Villagra 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.

Market

The Tomás Alarcón talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colo-Colo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

220 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

14 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Felipe Loyola puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Simón Ramírez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simón Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Boardroom

Simón Ramírez signs for Huachipato while still at Colo-Colo

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Simón Ramírez has agreed terms with Huachipato for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

Vicente Reyes 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Market

Segundo Pachamé wants European nights

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.

Squad

Rocco Ríos Novo signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rocco Ríos Novo and Colo-Colo agree another 4 years.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Nicolás Tagliafico'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.

Loan watch

Gabriel Maureira counts the days

“I watch every Colo-Colo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Inter runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

In brief

219 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

7 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

The run is over for Colo-Colo

34 matches without defeat, and then Cortulua. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

Match

A European lesson for Colo-Colo

1‑2 against Cortulua. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.

The dugout

Tiziano Girard keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Rodrigo Vargas is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes 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.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Enzo Taborda what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Enzo Taborda wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Vicente Reyes

“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 ratings

Nahuel Curcio was unplayable

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.

In brief

218 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

30 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Colo-Colo are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 74 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

The dugout

Salomón Rodríguez: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Claudio Aquino has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Lautaro Cueli asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Juan Pablo De la Reta what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Pablo De la Reta wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Giuliano Cerato 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Valentín Vada

“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 dugout

Felipe Loyola has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Colo-Colo 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.

In brief

217 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

23 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

34 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 34 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto lights up a European night for Colo-Colo

1‑0 against Cerro Porteno, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Bruno Barticciotto was at the centre of the description.

Market

Only the photograph left for Rocco Ríos Novo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rocco Ríos Novo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Gonzalo Requena what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gonzalo Requena wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Adam Bareiro is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.40 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Tagliafico 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 ratings

Bruno Barticciotto was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. 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.

In brief

216 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

16 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

33 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.67 with 32 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

The run at home goes on for Colo-Colo

18 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Match

Enzo Taborda sends Colo-Colo through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Enzo Taborda obliged against O'Higgins. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Colo-Colo.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Felipe Loyola asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Match

Cruel end for O'Higgins as Colo-Colo pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Colo-Colo scored in the 106th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Player ratings

Both of them Enzo Taborda's — 9.51

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.51, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Vicente Reyes stands alone

8 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.

In brief

215 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

9 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Still nobody has beaten Colo-Colo

The unbeaten run reaches 32. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Vicente Reyes

There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Match

Full time on the season at Colo-Colo

Position 2 on 74 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Player ratings

Víctor Felipe Méndez pops up at the right end — 7.92

7.92, 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.

Market

Vicente Reyes wants European nights

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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Rodrigo Vargas

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodrigo Vargas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Adam Bareiro stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Adam Bareiro and Colo-Colo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Fernando Valenzuela 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.

In brief

214 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

2 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

31 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Match

Colo-Colo refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 73 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

The dugout

Valentín Vada: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Only the photograph left for Claudio Aquino

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Claudio Aquino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Lautaro Cueli asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Market

Facundo Garcés wants European nights

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Facundo Garcés and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Adam Bareiro stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Adam Bareiro and Colo-Colo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

213 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Giuliano Cerato asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Vicente Reyes

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Player ratings

Vintage Adam Bareiro — 8.20

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.20, and nobody on the pitch better.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Rocco Ríos Novo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Adam Bareiro

11 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Tagliafico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Adam Bareiro sends Colo-Colo past Universidad de Chile

It finished 1‑0, and it was Adam Bareiro’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Colo-Colo.

In brief

212 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

19 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

32 goals and a season average of 7.72 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Felipe Loyola asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Match

Colo-Colo run riot against Huachipato

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Squad

3 goals for Bruno Barticciotto

The match ball belongs to Bruno Barticciotto, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Player ratings

Vintage Adam Bareiro — 7.96

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.96, and nobody on the pitch better.

The dugout

Marcos Camarda says Colo-Colo went back on their word

“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.

Match

Colo-Colo make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 3 straight wins of it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Juan Nunez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Nunez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

In brief

211 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

12 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

28 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 28 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Player ratings

Adam Bareiro, 34, rolls back the years — 8.28

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 23. 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.

Market

Rodrigo Vargas has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes 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.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Squad

Adam Bareiro is carrying Colo-Colo

10 goals and a season average of 7.37. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Loan watch

Tomas Meneses counts the days

“I watch every Colo-Colo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Union La Calera runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

Market

Enzo Taborda wants European nights

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.

In brief

210 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

5 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

27 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 27 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.68 with 29 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

No mercy from Colo-Colo

Santiago Wanderers will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colo-Colo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Colo-Colo are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 63 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Adam Bareiro yet — 9.13

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

Fernando Valenzuela gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Fernando Valenzuela has just signed for Colo-Colo, and for once the answer mattered.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

209 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

26 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Market

Giuliano Cerato puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Rocco Ríos Novo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Nahuel Curcio

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Market

So close: Lautaro Cueli’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Union La Calera moved on, Lautaro Cueli reports back to Colo-Colo, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Garcés 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Gonzalo Requena what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gonzalo Requena wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Player ratings

Víctor Felipe Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.04. 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.

In brief

208 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

22 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

26 goals and a season average of 7.65. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Felipe Loyola 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Rodrigo Vargas has said yes to Iquique

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colo-Colo have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Adam Bareiro yet — 9.22

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

The dugout

Erick Pulgar keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 3 signed and 7 gone

That is the business done at Colo-Colo until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

In brief

207 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

15 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

24 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Match

Enzo Taborda leads the rout of San Marcos de Arica

4‑0, and Enzo Taborda took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Colo-Colo tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Enzo Taborda scores twice — 9.30

Two goals and a mark of 9.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Terms done: Rocco Ríos Novo is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Universidad de Chile waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Adam Bareiro yet — 8.86

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Franco Lobos 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Víctor Felipe Méndez goes up and wins it — 7.75

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.75 for the rest of it.

Market

Colo-Colo say no — this time

The offer from Iquique for Christofer Gonzáles 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Matías Pérez Acuña

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Pérez Acuña will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

In brief

206 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

8 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

23 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

25 goals and a season average of 7.63. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

No mercy from Colo-Colo

Iquique will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colo-Colo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

Colo-Colo up to position 2

53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

A brace, and Juan Nunez takes the afternoon — 8.93

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Nunez provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Lautaro Cueli has said yes to Union La Calera

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colo-Colo have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Víctor Felipe Méndez 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

In brief

205 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

1 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Still nobody has beaten Colo-Colo

The unbeaten run reaches 22. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Market

Terms done: Francisco Marchant is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tskhinvali waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Matías Fernández puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 27. 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.

Market

Claudio Aquino is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Union Espanola come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Colo-Colo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Felipe Loyola and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Universidad de Concepcion end the Colo-Colo run at 7

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Squad

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

In brief

204 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

24 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Felipe Loyola 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Player ratings

Both of them Adam Bareiro's — 9.07

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.07, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Terms done: Christofer Gonzáles is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Iquique waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Market

Only the photograph left for Francisco Sierralta

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Sierralta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Colo-Colo say no — this time

The offer from Universidad de Chile for Gonzalo Gutiérrez 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.

Squad

Vicente Reyes 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

O'Higgins tell Colo-Colo: Thiago Vecino is not for sale

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.

In brief

203 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

17 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Cup progress for Colo-Colo

A 1‑0 win over Iquique, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Market

Terms done: Claudio Aquino is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Iquique waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Player ratings

Adam Bareiro, 33, rolls back the years — 8.19

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Lautaro Cueli puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Cristián Zavala

Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo rebuffed over Ricardo Solbes

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Universidad de Chile have kept their man, and Colo-Colo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Market

Juan Nunez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

In brief

202 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

10 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

25 goals and a season average of 7.63 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

A brace, and Bruno Barticciotto takes the afternoon — 9.48

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Barticciotto provided it, and the 9.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Colo-Colo up to position 2

43 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Adam Bareiro yet — 9.36

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Terms done: Lautaro Cueli is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Union La Calera waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Not going: Rodrigo Vargas stays at Colo-Colo

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Iquique had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Market

Leandro Hernández asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

In brief

201 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

3 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

23 goals and a season average of 7.56 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

3 goals for Bruno Barticciotto

The match ball belongs to Bruno Barticciotto, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Adam Bareiro yet — 8.45

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.45 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Simón Ramírez 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Colo-Colo make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico 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 ratings

A masterclass from Bruno Barticciotto

Marked 9.69 — 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.

Market

Felipe Loyola is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colo-Colo has been clear about where Felipe Loyola stands, which is more than many ever get.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto sends Colo-Colo past San Luis

It finished 3‑1, and it was Bruno Barticciotto’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Colo-Colo.

In brief

200 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

27 May 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

16 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

3 goals for Bruno Barticciotto

The match ball belongs to Bruno Barticciotto, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Player ratings

Tomás Alarcón scores twice — 8.38

Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.48 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

The dugout

Franco Iturriaga: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Match

Colo-Colo get the job done against O'Higgins

A 5‑3 win over O'Higgins, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Colo-Colo and O'Higgins in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Bruno Barticciotto at his very best

Marked 9.77. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Colo-Colo.

In brief

199 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

15 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 15 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.38 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Only the photograph left for Juan Nunez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Nunez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes 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.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Match

Colo-Colo see off Universidad Catolica

Three points for Colo-Colo, 1‑0 the final word against Universidad Catolica in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Market

Rocco Ríos Novo has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Looking ahead

The big one: O'Higgins come into view

Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Colo-Colo will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.

Squad

49 clean sheets for Vicente Reyes

A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Vicente Reyes now has 49 of them across 182 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.

In brief

198 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

13 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Still nobody has beaten Colo-Colo

The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Match

Colo-Colo refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 31 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Felipe Loyola 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.

Market

Facundo Garcés 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 Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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 dugout

Vicente Reyes 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Erik de los Santos what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erik de los Santos wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

In brief

197 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

13 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Market

Felipe Loyola wants more than Colo-Colo are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Brayan Cortés signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brayan Cortés commits to Colo-Colo for another 2 years.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Vicente Reyes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Luciano Acosta gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luciano Acosta has just signed for Colo-Colo, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Salomón Rodríguez what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Salomón Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

The dugout

No hiding place for Erick Pulgar

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Pulgar, and the manager let it.

In brief

196 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

29 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.41 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Igor Lichnovsky has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Vicente Reyes what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Vicente Reyes wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Tomás Romero 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Tagliafico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto the difference as Colo-Colo beat Union Espanola

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Barticciotto. 1‑0 against Union Espanola, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Felipe Loyola was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.06. 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.

In brief

195 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 8.77

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.77, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

11 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Felipe Loyola what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Felipe Loyola wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

15 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Juan Nunez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Colo-Colo get the job done against Santiago Wanderers

A 2‑0 win over Santiago Wanderers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

194 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

15 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Colo-Colo refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 23 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Squad

A day Bruno Barticciotto will not forget

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.

Match

10 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Market

Lautaro Cueli puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Nicolás Tagliafico 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Tomás Romero stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomás Romero and Colo-Colo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

13 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto in the eights

A performance of 9.59 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

193 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

8 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 26. 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.

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Tomás Romero 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Tagliafico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Tomás Romero

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Romero, and the manager let it.

Market

Segundo Pachamé has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Player of the month: Bruno Barticciotto

Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Colo-Colo prefer.

Loan watch

Gabriel Maureira counts the days

“I watch every Colo-Colo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Inter runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

Colo-Colo pick somebody else ahead of Brayan Cortés

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.

In brief

192 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

1 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

A 2-goal lead gone for Colo-Colo

It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. San Marcos de Arica kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Colo-Colo will be asked about the last half hour all week.

Market

Tomás Romero puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto scores twice — 8.73

Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Igor Lichnovsky has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Colo-Colo

The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Match

The run is over for Colo-Colo

7 matches without defeat, and then San Marcos de Arica. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

The dugout

Brayan Cortés 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.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

In brief

191 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 43. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Felipe Loyola 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Player ratings

A brace, and Salomón Rodríguez takes the afternoon — 8.72

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Salomón Rodríguez provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Felipe Loyola 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Juan Nunez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Nunez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Match

Salomón Rodríguez sends Colo-Colo past Iquique

It finished 2‑0, and it was Salomón Rodríguez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Colo-Colo.

Match

Another one collected away from home

3 on the bounce on the road for Colo-Colo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

In brief

190 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

18 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Colo-Colo through in the cup

A 6‑0 win over San Luis, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 8.95

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

A day Franchu will not forget

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.

Player ratings

Víctor Felipe Méndez scores twice — 8.22

Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match

Colo-Colo make it 6 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 6 straight wins of it.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Felipe Loyola 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 Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gonzalo Gutiérrez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gonzalo Gutiérrez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Match

6 goals as Colo-Colo and San Luis go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Colo-Colo and San Luis, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

In brief

189 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

11 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Colo-Colo make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 4 straight wins of it.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. 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.

Squad

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Market

Salomón Rodríguez wants European nights

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.

Match

Colo-Colo see off Antofagasta

Three points for Colo-Colo, 1‑0 the final word against Antofagasta in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Loan watch

Gabriel Maureira wants to come home

“I did not go to Inter to sit and watch. I want to come back to Colo-Colo and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.

Squad

Ismael Sierra signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ismael Sierra and Colo-Colo agree another 4 years.

The dugout

No hiding place for Víctor Felipe Méndez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Víctor Felipe Méndez, and the manager let it.

In brief

188 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

4 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 8.75

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.75, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Felipe Loyola wants European nights

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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Igor Lichnovsky

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Lichnovsky will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Squad

Erick Pulgar signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Erick Pulgar and Colo-Colo agree another 2 years.

Squad

A move Ismael Sierra 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. Ismael Sierra is living that version at Colo-Colo, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Match

Colo-Colo get the job done against Cobresal

A 2‑0 win over Cobresal, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

187 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

25 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Tomás Alarcón keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Juan Nunez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Facundo Garcés has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Tagliafico 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Ulises Sánchez

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto the difference as Colo-Colo beat Union La Calera

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Barticciotto. 2‑0 against Union La Calera, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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 ratings

Salomón Rodríguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.01. 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.

The dugout

Felipe Loyola 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 Felipe Loyola is on it.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Tiziano Girard
  • Squad The formation has left Adam Bareiro behind
186 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

18 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Colo-Colo run riot against San Luis

5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

A brace, and Adam Bareiro takes the afternoon — 9.59

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adam Bareiro provided it, and the 9.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 9.13

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.13, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Lautaro Cueli puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Nicolás Tagliafico 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A move Adam Bareiro 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. Adam Bareiro is living that version at Colo-Colo, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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 ratings

One of those days for Nahuel Curcio

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

185 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

11 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Vicente Reyes gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vicente Reyes has just signed for Colo-Colo, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Market

Vicente Reyes comes home

The shirt still fits. Vicente Reyes is back at Colo-Colo, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Market

Alejo Medina is a Colo-Colo player again

He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.

Boardroom

13 academy players handed senior numbers at Colo-Colo

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

One of our own: Jorge Beausejour joins the Colo-Colo first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jorge Beausejour is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

Daniel Riquelme steps up from the Colo-Colo academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Riquelme 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.

Squad

Vicente Reyes signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vicente Reyes commits to Colo-Colo for another 4 years.

In brief

184 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

4 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Felipe Loyola asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

The dugout

Claudio Aquino: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Igor Lichnovsky is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Felipe Loyola and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Facundo Garcés 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 Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Tagliafico 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.

Squad

Valentín Vada signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valentín Vada and Colo-Colo agree another 2 years.

Market

Juan Pablo De la Reta wants European nights

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.

The dugout

Rocco Ríos Novo 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.

In brief

183 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

28 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Felipe Loyola raises the bar for Colo-Colo

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.

Market

Juan Nunez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Enzo Taborda what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Enzo Taborda wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Giuliano Cerato

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giuliano Cerato, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Felipe Loyola 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 Felipe Loyola is on it.

The dugout

Valentín Vada 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 Colo-Colo, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The shop window has Franco Lobos in it

Colo-Colo have let the market know Franco Lobos can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

In brief

182 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

21 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Simón Ramírez keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Rocco Ríos Novo what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rocco Ríos Novo wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Ulises Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

No hiding place for Tiziano Girard

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tiziano Girard, and the manager let it.

The dugout

When it matters, Bruno Barticciotto plays

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.

Market

Gabriel Maureira is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colo-Colo has been clear about where Gabriel Maureira stands, which is more than many ever get.

Market

Colo-Colo put Matías Fernández up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Matías Fernández may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

181 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

14 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Nobody above Colo-Colo

First, on 84 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

The dugout

Erick Pulgar: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

A move Nicolás Tagliafico 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. Nicolás Tagliafico is living that version at Colo-Colo, and it tends to show in the first month.

Market

Diego Becker has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

The San Marcos de Arica deal is off

Everything was agreed until it was not, and Cristián Zavala reports back to Colo-Colo with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Erik de los Santos has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Matías Fernández 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Franco Lobos

“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.

In brief

180 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

7 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Diego Becker has said yes to Huachipato

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colo-Colo have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto honoured for the season

The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Colo-Colo had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.

Market

Igor Lichnovsky is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Claudio Aquino’s move to Iquique falls through

The deal that would have taken Claudio Aquino to Iquique has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Colo-Colo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Market

Colo-Colo turn down Iquique for Juan Nunez

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bruno Barticciotto commits to Colo-Colo for another 4 years.

Squad

Juan Pablo De la Reta gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan Pablo De la Reta has just signed for Colo-Colo, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Erick Pulgar 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.

The dugout

Facundo Garcés 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 Facundo Garcés is on it.

In brief

179 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

31 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Gabriel Maureira agrees terms with Central Espanol

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Colo-Colo turn down San Marcos de Arica for Cristián Zavala

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Lautaro Cueli puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Felipe Loyola what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Felipe Loyola wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Ulises Sánchez 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

No hiding place for Valentín Vada

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Valentín Vada, and the manager let it.

The dugout

When it matters, Felipe Loyola plays

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 dugout

Bastián Yáñez 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.

In brief

178 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

24 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Igor Lichnovsky has said yes to Santiago Wanderers

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colo-Colo have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo rebuffed over Jonmi Magunagoitia

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eibar have kept their man, and Colo-Colo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Matías Pérez Acuña puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Facundo Garcés what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Garcés wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Colo-Colo walk away from Felipe Faúndez

$600.0K was the most the club would pay and O'Higgins were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Enzo Taborda signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Enzo Taborda and Colo-Colo agree another 5 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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

177 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

17 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Boardroom

Colo-Colo lift the trophy

The season a town measures the next twenty against. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.

Match

Nobody above Colo-Colo

First, on 84 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Market

Claudio Aquino agrees terms with Iquique

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match

Colo-Colo come up short in Europe

0‑1 away to the standard of Santa Fe. 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.

Transfer targets

Espanyol tell Colo-Colo: Pol Lozano is not for sale

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.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto honoured for the season

The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Colo-Colo had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.

The dugout

Tomás Romero keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Tomás Romero arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tomás Romero has, at Colo-Colo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo bid $600.0K for Alan Cisnero

The offer went to Universidad Catolica 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.

In brief

176 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

10 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

Silverware for Colo-Colo

They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

34 goals and a season average of 7.79. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Colo-Colo through in the cup

A 1‑0 win over Palestino, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Market

Cristián Zavala agrees terms with San Marcos de Arica

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

The dugout

Jeyson Rojas: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Colo-Colo turn down Iquique for Claudio Aquino

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Felipe Loyola raises the bar for Colo-Colo

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.

Squad

Jonathan Villagra out for 28 days

The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Jonathan Villagra, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

In brief

175 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

3 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Javier Correa damages knee ligaments — 132 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 132 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.

Match

Colo-Colo beaten on the continent

1‑3 against Vasco da Gama, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.

The dugout

Matías Fernández says Colo-Colo went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Enzo Taborda is carrying Colo-Colo

16 goals and a season average of 7.68. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Giuliano Cerato what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Giuliano Cerato wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Enzo Taborda 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Gabriel Maureira attracts admirers

The name of Gabriel Maureira has come up in conversations Colo-Colo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Brayan Cortés

“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.

In brief

174 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

26 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Eduardo Villanueva puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Enzo Taborda what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Enzo Taborda wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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 dugout

No hiding place for Franchu

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franchu, and the manager let it.

The dugout

When it matters, Tomás Alarcón plays

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.

Market

The Matías Fernández talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colo-Colo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

A door opens for Erick Pulgar

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.

In brief

173 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

19 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

The view from the top for Colo-Colo

84 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.

The dugout

Franchu: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Only the photograph left for Juan Nunez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Nunez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Ulises 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.

Market

Rocco Ríos Novo has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

The dugout

Giuliano Cerato 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.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at Colo-Colo

With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

The dugout

Bruno Barticciotto has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Colo-Colo 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.

In brief

172 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

12 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.79 with 34 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

A European night to forget for Colo-Colo

3‑6. Boston River play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.

The dugout

Facundo Garcés keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Market

Tomas Meneses is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Jonathan Villagra out for 59 days

The medical room confirms 59 days on the sidelines for Jonathan Villagra, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto among the goals in a wild afternoon

9 goals in one match, Bruno Barticciotto on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Colo-Colo and Boston River.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Marcos Camarda what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcos Camarda wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

In brief

171 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

5 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Facundo Garcés wants more than Colo-Colo are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Market

Eduardo Villanueva has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Erik de los Santos what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erik de los Santos wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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.

The dugout

Felipe Loyola 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 Felipe Loyola is on it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Franco Lobos

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Lobos, and the manager let it.

Squad

A step back for Matías Pérez Acuña at Colo-Colo

Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.

Squad

Facundo Garcés moves up the pecking order

Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Colo-Colo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.

In brief

170 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

29 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Bruno Barticciotto lights up a European night for Colo-Colo

5‑3 against Boston River, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Bruno Barticciotto was at the centre of the description.

Squad

A day Bruno Barticciotto will not forget

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.

Squad

Enzo Taborda is carrying Colo-Colo

16 goals and a season average of 7.68. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

7 saves: Brayan Cortés was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

The dugout

Nahuel Curcio: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Erick Pulgar yet — 7.86

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Eduardo Villanueva puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gonzalo Gutiérrez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gonzalo Gutiérrez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

In brief

169 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

22 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Colo-Colo are top

84 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Market

Felipe Loyola raises the bar for Colo-Colo

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.

Market

Juan Nunez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Erick Pulgar 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.

Market

Salomón Rodríguez wants European nights

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.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Segundo Pachamé stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Segundo Pachamé and Colo-Colo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Brayan Cortés has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Colo-Colo 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.

Market

Matías Fernández linked with a move away

The name of Matías Fernández keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Colo-Colo say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

168 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

15 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Tomás Alarcón says Colo-Colo went back on their word

“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.

Market

Felipe Loyola has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Tomas Meneses has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Bastián Yáñez

“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.

Squad

Segundo Pachamé stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Segundo Pachamé and Colo-Colo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

No place for Facundo Garcés in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Colo-Colo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

The dugout

Bruno Barticciotto 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 Bruno Barticciotto is on it.

In brief

167 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

34 goals and a season average of 7.79. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

A European night to remember for Colo-Colo

2‑1 against Santa Fe, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.

Match

Salomón Rodríguez wins it after the whistle should have gone

92 minutes played. Salomón Rodríguez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Santa Fe went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Match

Another one collected away from home

9 on the bounce on the road for Colo-Colo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Randall Rodríguez

There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

A move Facundo Garcés 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. Facundo Garcés is living that version at Colo-Colo, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Brayan Cortés signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brayan Cortés commits to Colo-Colo for another 2 years.

Market

Eduardo Villanueva is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

Tomás Alarcón 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.

In brief

166 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Rocco Ríos Novo 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Erick Pulgar 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Giuliano Cerato what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Giuliano Cerato wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Franchu slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Franchu is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

Market

Simón Ramírez told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Simón Ramírez has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Colo-Colo.

The dugout

Felipe Loyola 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 Felipe Loyola is on it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Rocco Ríos Novo

“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.

In brief

165 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

24 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Colo-Colo are top

84 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Match

A European lesson for Colo-Colo

0‑1 against Vasco da Gama. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Brayan Cortés

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Lautaro Cueli puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Salomón Rodríguez

15 goals and a season average of 7.34 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Juan Nunez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

Vasco da Gama end the Colo-Colo run at 8

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Market

Enzo Taborda wants European nights

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.

In brief

164 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

17 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Tomas Meneses

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomas Meneses will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

The dugout

Erick Pulgar 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Rocco Ríos Novo what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rocco Ríos Novo wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Cerato 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 dugout

When it matters, Bruno Barticciotto plays

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.

Market

The Tomás Alarcón talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colo-Colo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Simón Ramírez 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 Simón Ramírez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

The manager makes Rocco Ríos Novo a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Colo-Colo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

163 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

18 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Match

Cup progress for Colo-Colo

A 4‑0 win over Union La Calera, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 32. 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.

Squad

A day Salomón Rodríguez will not forget

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.

Squad

Enzo Taborda is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.68 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Erick Wiemberg is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Felipe Loyola wants more than Colo-Colo are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

162 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

3 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

34 goals and a season average of 7.79 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Colo-Colo refuse to lose, and Bruno Barticciotto leads them

The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Bruno Barticciotto was at the centre of it, O'Higgins were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.

Match

Colo-Colo finish in position 1

84 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

A day Bruno Barticciotto will not forget

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.

Match

Colo-Colo are at home on the road

8 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Erick Pulgar 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Colo-Colo get the job done against O'Higgins

A 4‑3 win over O'Higgins, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

161 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Brayan Cortés

17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Match

The view from the top for Colo-Colo

81 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.

Match

Colo-Colo make it 6 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 6 straight wins of it.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Enzo Taborda

15 goals and a season average of 7.62 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Lautaro Cueli puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Eduardo Villanueva has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Market

Salomón Rodríguez has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

In brief

160 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

20 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Brayan Cortés

25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

31 goals and a season average of 7.75 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Cruel end for Universidad de Chile as Colo-Colo pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Colo-Colo scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 8.88

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

Another one collected away from home

7 on the bounce on the road for Colo-Colo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Market

Felipe Loyola has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Bhayangkara Presisi come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Colo-Colo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Only the photograph left for Juan Nunez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Nunez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

In brief

159 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Brayan Cortés

36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

29 goals and a season average of 7.71. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Player ratings

Enzo Taborda scores twice — 9.84

Two goals and a mark of 9.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Match

Colo-Colo win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 98th minute. Huachipato will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Market

Only the photograph left for Erick Wiemberg

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erick Wiemberg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

The dugout

Randall Rodríguez: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

Colo-Colo make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 4 straight wins of it.

In brief

158 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.64 with 26 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Colo-Colo tear Union Espanola apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑1 against Union Espanola, and it could have been more.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Squad

3 goals for Enzo Taborda

The match ball belongs to Enzo Taborda, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Match

Colo-Colo keep winning on the road

6 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Player ratings

Enzo Taborda in the eights

A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Colo-Colo and Union Espanola in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

In brief

157 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

27 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 27 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto leads the rout of Santiago Wanderers

3‑0, and Bruno Barticciotto took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Colo-Colo tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

Colo-Colo are top

69 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is carrying Colo-Colo

23 goals and a season average of 7.57. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

The run at home goes on for Colo-Colo

15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

The dugout

Salomón Rodríguez: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

A day Bruno Barticciotto will not forget

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.

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Only the photograph left for Tomas Meneses

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomas Meneses will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

In brief

156 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

26 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 26 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo baulk at the price for Manu Fuster

Las Palmas wanted more than $30.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Francisco Marchant agrees terms with San Luis

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.51 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Jonmi Magunagoitia

Colo-Colo asked and Eibar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Igor Lichnovsky 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

Colo-Colo close the window on a squad of their own making

5 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Colo-Colo say no — this time

The offer from San Marcos de Arica for Gonzalo Gutiérrez 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.

Squad

A move Tiziano Girard 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. Tiziano Girard is living that version at Colo-Colo, and it tends to show in the first month.

In brief

155 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

25 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 25 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo bid $27.8M for Manu Fuster

The offer went to Las Palmas 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 targets

Door shut on Juanma Herzog

Colo-Colo asked and Oviedo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Market

Julio Fierro agrees terms with O'Higgins

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Cristián Zavala 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Tomás Migliore due for a Colo-Colo medical

Everything agreed with Universidad de Chile, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

Only the photograph left for Erick Wiemberg

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erick Wiemberg will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Felipe Loyola raises the bar for Colo-Colo

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.

In brief

154 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

9 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Match

No mercy from Colo-Colo

San Marcos de Arica will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colo-Colo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Market

David Fernández agrees terms with Independiente Medellin

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Squad

A day Salomón Rodríguez will not forget

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.

Market

Christofer Gonzáles asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Squad

Salomón Rodríguez is carrying Colo-Colo

15 goals and a season average of 7.35. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Colo-Colo say no — this time

The offer from Persis for Tomas Meneses 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.

Squad

Tomás Alarcón signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomás Alarcón and Colo-Colo agree another 4 years.

Transfer targets

No deal for Rodrigo Godoy at that price

Colo-Colo offered $810.0K; O'Higgins 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.

In brief

153 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

2 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Match

No mercy from Colo-Colo

Iquique will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colo-Colo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 33. 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.

Match

The view from the top for Colo-Colo

59 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.

Player ratings

Salomón Rodríguez scores twice — 9.15

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.

Market

Terms done: Tomas Meneses is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Santiago Wanderers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

19 goals and a season average of 7.48 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Yangel Herrera

Colo-Colo asked and Real Sociedad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

The run at home goes on for Colo-Colo

13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

In brief

152 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Colo-Colo win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Universidad de Concepcion will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Match

Colo-Colo make it 7 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 7 straight wins of it.

Market

Terms done: Eduardo Villanueva is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Universidad de Chile waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Íñigo Vicente

Colo-Colo asked and Racing Santander said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Claudio Aquino 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A move Valentín Vada 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. Valentín Vada is living that version at Colo-Colo, and it tends to show in the first month.

Player ratings

Bastián Yáñez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo bid $760.0K for Rodrigo Godoy

The offer went to O'Higgins 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.

Boardroom

Daniel Gutiérrez has agreed to leave Colo-Colo for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

In brief

151 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

18 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Cup progress for Colo-Colo

A 5‑1 win over Iquique, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?

Match

Colo-Colo run riot against Antofagasta

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

A brace, and Bastián Yáñez takes the afternoon — 9.23

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bastián Yáñez provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Both of them Nahuel Curcio's — 8.53

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.53, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Gonzalo Gutiérrez agrees terms with San Luis

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match

Colo-Colo make it 6 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Colo-Colo have 6 straight wins of it.

The terraces

Colo-Colo are 1 in the table and the town has noticed

53 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.

Player ratings

Vintage Erick Wiemberg — 7.87

At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.87, and nobody on the pitch better.

Match

The run at home goes on for Colo-Colo

12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

In brief

150 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

11 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

David Fernández agrees terms with Universitario

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colo-Colo people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Player ratings

A brace, and Enzo Taborda takes the afternoon — 9.32

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Enzo Taborda provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Transfer targets

$990.0K settles it between the clubs for Bianneider Tamayo

Universidad de Chile have accepted the money. What Colo-Colo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Tomas Meneses turns Persis down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Eduardo Villanueva 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Transfer targets

Franco Lobos due for a Colo-Colo medical

Everything agreed with Union La Calera, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ulises Sánchez

Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Colo-Colo bid $430.0K for Diego Carreño

The offer went to San Luis 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.

In brief

149 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

4 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Nobody above Colo-Colo

First, on 47 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.49 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Renzo Saravia puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Claudio Aquino: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Colo-Colo say no — this time

The offer from Deportes Tolima for David Fernández 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.

Market

Felipe Loyola 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 Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Match

Colo-Colo make home a hard place to visit

10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

In brief

148 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

17 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 17 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Match

Colo-Colo tear San Luis apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against San Luis, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

Both of them Enzo Taborda's — 9.93

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

A brace, and Bruno Barticciotto takes the afternoon — 9.50

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Barticciotto provided it, and the 9.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.46 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Only the photograph left for Leandro Hernández

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Hernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Felipe Loyola

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Giuliano Cerato has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

147 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

16 unbeaten for Colo-Colo

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 16 matches without defeat is a foundation Colo-Colo did not have in the autumn.

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 8.73

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.73, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Julio Fierro puts it in writing

“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

16 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

A muscle injury sidelines Tomás Alarcón for 14 days

Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Colo-Colo will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Enzo Taborda wants European nights

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Nobody wins at Colo-Colo

9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

In brief

146 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Colo-Colo do not lose

15 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Match

After 10 games, Colo-Colo finally taste it again

The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Universidad Catolica; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Matías Fernández 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

Tomás Alarcón 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.

Market

Marcos Camarda has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Looking ahead

Colo-Colo and O'Higgins meet at the summit

The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Felipe Loyola

A mark of 7.76, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

In brief

145 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

10 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Match

Colo-Colo run riot against Universidad de Chile

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto scores twice — 9.31

Two goals and a mark of 9.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match

Colo-Colo are top

37 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Market

Felipe Loyola wants more than Colo-Colo are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Bruno Barticciotto

14 goals and a season average of 7.34 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Daniel Gutiérrez has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

144 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

30 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto scores twice — 8.68

Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Leandro Hernández has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Match

Colo-Colo keep winning on the road

4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto the difference as Colo-Colo beat Huachipato

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bruno Barticciotto. 2‑1 against Huachipato, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.25 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto at the heart of a fast Colo-Colo start

2 goals inside twenty minutes with Bruno Barticciotto in the middle of it, and Huachipato unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.

In brief

  • Looking ahead Top-of-the-table clash for Colo-Colo
  • The dugout Enzo Taborda gets it from the manager
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
143 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

23 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Match

No mercy from Colo-Colo

Union Espanola will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colo-Colo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 8.78

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.78, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Julio Fierro 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 23. 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.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Colo-Colo lose Gaspar Monsalve

24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

The dugout

No hiding place for Javier Correa

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Javier Correa, and the manager let it.

In brief

142 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

16 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The knee: Aldo Rimbelitti out for 17 days

17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colo-Colo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 35. 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.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Salomón Rodríguez wants European nights

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Matías Fernández 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Bruno Barticciotto sends Colo-Colo past Santiago Wanderers

It finished 2‑0, and it was Bruno Barticciotto’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Colo-Colo.

Match

Another one collected away from home

3 on the bounce on the road for Colo-Colo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.33. 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.

In brief

141 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

9 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Aldo Rimbelitti damages knee ligaments — 26 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.

Match

No mercy from Colo-Colo

Audax Italiano will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colo-Colo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Squad

Salomón Rodríguez takes the match ball home

4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Squad

A day Bruno Barticciotto will not forget

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.

Match

Nobody above Colo-Colo

First, on 25 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Match

Colo-Colo cannot stop winning

6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Market

Felipe Loyola 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 Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Player ratings

Nahuel Curcio was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Market

Daniel Gutiérrez is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

In brief

140 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

2 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Aldo Rimbelitti 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.

Player ratings

A brace, and Franchu takes the afternoon — 8.32

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franchu provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Market

Only the photograph left for Leandro Hernández

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Hernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Enzo Taborda has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colo-Colo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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.

Match

Colo-Colo find a way past Palestino

Palestino made Colo-Colo work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Felipe Loyola at his very best

Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Colo-Colo.

In brief

139 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

26 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The knee: Aldo Rimbelitti out for 42 days

42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colo-Colo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Matías Fernández yet — 8.28

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Colo-Colo turn down Columbus Crew for David Fernández

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Market

Julio Fierro asks to leave Colo-Colo

“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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Giuliano Cerato what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Giuliano Cerato wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Colo-Colo

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Barticciotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Colo-Colo find a way past San Marcos de Arica

San Marcos de Arica made Colo-Colo work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

138 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

19 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Aldo Rimbelitti

49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

David Fernández sends Colo-Colo through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and David Fernández obliged against San Luis. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Colo-Colo.

Match

No mercy from Colo-Colo

Iquique will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colo-Colo were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Both of them Bruno Barticciotto's — 8.77

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.77, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

The dugout

Bastián Yáñez keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colo-Colo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Player ratings

A brace, and David Fernández takes the afternoon — 8.52

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Fernández provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Both of them Franchu's — 8.32

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

In brief

137 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

12 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 44. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

The knee: Aldo Rimbelitti out for 60 days

60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colo-Colo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Franchu leads the rout of Universidad de Concepcion

3‑0, and Franchu took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Colo-Colo tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Market

Only the photograph left for Daniel Gutiérrez

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Gutiérrez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández 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 ratings

Salomón Rodríguez in the eights

A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Franchu

Marked 8.04 — 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.

Squad

Diego Ulloa reaches 100 appearances

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.

In brief

136 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Aldo Rimbelitti out for 67 days

67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colo-Colo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Leandro Hernández has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Brayan Cortés signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brayan Cortés commits to Colo-Colo for another 2 years.

Market

Felipe Loyola 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 Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Enzo Taborda gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Enzo Taborda has just signed for Colo-Colo, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Market

Colo-Colo may not be able to give Marcos Camarda what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcos Camarda wants continental football; whether Colo-Colo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Market

Still no ink between Colo-Colo and Tomás Alarcón

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Colo-Colo, another week without a signature from Tomás Alarcón.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Marcos Camarda

“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.

In brief

  • The dugout Brayan Cortés gets picked when it counts
  • The dugout Giuliano Cerato dropped after a run of poor form
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
135 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Aldo Rimbelitti out for 74 days

74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colo-Colo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Colo-Colo — 7.91

1 for Tomás Alarcón, marked 7.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.

Market

Julio Fierro 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 Colo-Colo can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Fernando De Paul is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Match

Nobody wants to play Colo-Colo right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Colo-Colo

Matías Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Franchu

“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.

Match

Salomón Rodríguez the difference as Colo-Colo beat Cobresal

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Salomón Rodríguez. 2‑0 against Cobresal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

In brief

134 Edition

The Colo-Colo Chronicle

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Aldo Rimbelitti damages knee ligaments — 82 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.

The dugout

Franchu: 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.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Colo-Colo — 7.96

1 for Víctor Felipe Méndez, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.

Squad

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Match

Colo-Colo get the job done against Union La Calera

A 3‑2 win over Union La Calera, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

Matías Fernández 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 Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Salomón Rodríguez

Marked 8.28 — 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.

Player ratings

Bruno Barticciotto 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.

Player ratings

Ulises Sánchez runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

  • Squad Colo-Colo are still strangers to each other
  • The dugout Bruno Barticciotto has become a man the manager trusts
  • The dugout The view from the dugout