Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristian Martinez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metropolitanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad20 Sep 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rafael Herrera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metropolitanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saimon Ramírez and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Marked 8.77 — 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvador Bolívar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metropolitanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Santos Torrealba 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 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rafael Herrera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metropolitanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Maximiliano Barrios 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 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.
Marked 8.71 — 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yolfran Caricote and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad9 Aug 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Position 16 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metropolitanos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristian Martinez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metropolitanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Corredor 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.
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Caracas the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Metropolitanos will enjoy reviewing.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.35 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Santos Torrealba 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 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jeizon Ramírez Chacón will call it something else in private.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Zamora will make the call about Cristian Martinez this week. Metropolitanos have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metropolitanos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 easiest signature of my career.” Árgel Sánchez and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Marked 8.85 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Maximiliano Barrios 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Metropolitanos and Llaneros, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Yolfran Caricote will call it something else in private.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metropolitanos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 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.
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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.
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
A 1‑1 win over Deportivo Tachira, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Luis Corredor 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alejo Lombardi and Metropolitanos agree another 3 years.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Santos Torrealba 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 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saimon Ramírez signs something — a contract at Metropolitanos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
8.64. 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.
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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
At 34 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metropolitanos can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Santos Torrealba 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.
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
Santos Torrealba 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 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeizon Ramírez Chacón and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Santos Torrealba 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 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 ratings5 Apr 2038
Alejo Lombardi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.06. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvador Bolívar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metropolitanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 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.
13 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Maximiliano Barrios 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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jeizon Ramírez Chacón signs something — a contract at Metropolitanos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metropolitanos can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximiliano Barrios and Metropolitanos agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saimon Ramírez signs something — a contract at Metropolitanos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maximiliano Barrios provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with David Ramirez: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.48 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvador Bolívar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Metropolitanos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
27 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Luis Corredor 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
SquadWords at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Santos Torrealba 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Metropolitanos and Mineros de Guayana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rafael Herrera did not need any: 8.48, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 18 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metropolitanos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saimon Ramírez and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Santos Torrealba 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 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.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Santos Torrealba. 1‑0 against Aragua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The captaincy has been taken off Santos Torrealba. Metropolitanos will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Santos Torrealba 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.
11 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rafael Ramirez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alejandro Ferraresi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jose Casseres 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.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Nobody at Metropolitanos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The offer from Zamora for Salvador Bolívar 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Carlos Otero to Estudiantes de Merida has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Metropolitanos with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Santos Torrealba and Metropolitanos agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Metropolitanos is running low.
Santos Torrealba 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 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.
Nobody at Metropolitanos 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Maximiliano Barrios 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saimon Ramírez signs something — a contract at Metropolitanos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The offer from Atletico Venezuela for Salvador Bolívar 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Metropolitanos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Metropolitanos is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejo Lombardi 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Santos Torrealba 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Roberto Ferraresi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Santos Torrealba 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 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Maximiliano Barrios 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 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Luis Corredor 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
SquadWords at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Boardroom86% of the income goes out in wages at Metropolitanos
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Santos Torrealba 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 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
SquadLuis Corredor has become a man the manager trusts
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeizon Ramírez Chacón and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Boardroom92% of the income goes out in wages at Metropolitanos
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Santos Torrealba 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Deportivo La Guaira will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Emiliano Valenzuela provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Roberto Ferraresi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Saimon Ramírez 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 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
0‑3 to Deportivo Tachira, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Maximiliano Barrios 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 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.52 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Jul 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Nobody at Metropolitanos 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saimon Ramírez and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Saimon Ramírez 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 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yolfran Caricote and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years.
Saimon Ramírez 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 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Mineros de Guayana go through and Metropolitanos go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metropolitanos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Saimon Ramírez 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.
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take 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.
Marked 8.51 — 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Luis Corredor's mistake
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad18 May 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Bautista García had Metropolitanos level again within 1 minutes, and Aragua never got to play with a lead at all.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 May 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 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.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Saimon Ramírez 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 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Luis Corredor knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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 terraces20 Apr 2037
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Metropolitanos and Estudiantes de Merida, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.62 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Maximiliano Barrios 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 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Deportivo Tachira spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
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.
Player ratings6 Apr 2037
Alejo Lombardi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.97. 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 easiest signature of my career.” Rafael Herrera and Metropolitanos agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
8.60. 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.
It needed Maximiliano Barrios to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Trujillanos, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
30 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Santos Torrealba 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 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. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Mar 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Marked 9.04 — 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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 0‑0 win over Estudiantes de Merida, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 32 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings2 Mar 2037
Matheus Lima could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.62
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.62, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
28 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Santos Torrealba 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 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.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metropolitanos can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Player ratings2 Feb 2037
Rafael Herrera, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jeizon Ramírez Chacón and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad2 Feb 2037
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.74 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Santos Torrealba 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.
7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
Marked 8.69 — 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.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Metropolitanos is running low.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Santos Torrealba 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 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.
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metropolitanos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metropolitanos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metropolitanos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Santos Torrealba 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Victor Moreno has just signed for Metropolitanos, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metropolitanos can pretend not to have heard.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 Metropolitanos, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Corredor and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Dec 2036
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.
Nobody at Metropolitanos 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.
Santos Torrealba 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Maximiliano Barrios 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 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.
Nobody at Metropolitanos 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Metropolitanos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Árgel 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Roberto Ferraresi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metropolitanos can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yolfran Caricote and Metropolitanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metropolitanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Nov 2036
Árgel Sánchez 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.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Words at Metropolitanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeizon Ramírez Chacón 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.