Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miguel Sánchez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.38 — 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Millonarios will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Santa Fe arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Eduard Bello
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Manyoma 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jefferson Palacios after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and José Raúl Zúñiga decided nobody was going anywhere. Deportivo Pasto had no time left to answer.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
It finished 3‑2, and it was José Raúl Zúñiga’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Deportivo Cali.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Néider Ospina 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Jefferson Palacios could afford to be generous.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
José Raúl Zúñiga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Atletico Bucaramanga left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jefferson Palacios to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ángelo Rodríguez 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Perez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gabriel Ospina 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Rangel has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juan Torres is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
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.
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 Miguel Sánchez has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportivo Cali know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Eduard Bello 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Johan Martínez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Jaguares for Yeison Tolosa 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Mineiro is saying, and nobody at Deportivo Cali is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Manyoma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Giraldo
The dugoutJohan Martínez asks for a word with the manager
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Deportivo Cali have gone to Tigres with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Reynoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Deportivo Cali asked and Vasco da Gama said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Yeison Tolosa has come up in conversations Deportivo Cali were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Deportivo Cali have made the call to Atlético Mineiro. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Mateo Puerta is on it.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Deportivo Cali asked and Pumas UNAM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Deportivo Cali have made the call to Racing Club. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Eduard Bello 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Benedetti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$1.6M on the table at Real Cartagena. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Deportivo Cali offered $820.0K; Fortaleza CEIF 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.
Union Magdalena paid $130.0K and Deportivo Cali took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
José Raúl Zúñiga 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronaldo Pájaro, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Manyoma 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Deportivo Cali will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
$820.0K on the table at Fortaleza CEIF. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johan Martínez wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Deportivo Cali will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Reynoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Reynoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo Cali, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
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 Néider Ospina is on it.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Deportivo Cali would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7.98, 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.
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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Reynoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tití Rodríguez. 3‑1 against Jaguares, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
8.24. 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Jefferson Palacios could afford to be generous.
Chances created: 10. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Deportivo Cali are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
Something was said to Léyser Chaverra and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo Cali, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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.
Junior next, and one man in the Deportivo Cali dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Deportivo Cali that is a harder question to answer.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Reynoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Pedro Gallese is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
16 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Eduard Bello 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Avilés Hurtado 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jefferson Palacios after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Néider Ospina'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.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Stiven Palomeque has, at Deportivo Cali, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jefferson Palacios kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Reynoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
15 new faces, and Deportivo Cali are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jhon Vásquez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 114 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ángelo Rodríguez. 1‑0 against Deportivo Pasto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jefferson Palacios kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Alexis Manyoma obliged against Depor. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Deportivo Cali.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joan Gómez did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Emanuel Reynoso 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Aguilas Doradas scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Deportivo Cali are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
15 new faces, and Deportivo Cali are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A 1‑1 draw with Aguilas Doradas leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jefferson Palacios was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Deportivo Cali dressing room was either.
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.
“127 caps was 127 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 36 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Deportivo Cali.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Reynoso 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jefferson Palacios after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportivo Cali, another week without a signature from Avilés Hurtado.