42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Once Caldas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Reinier
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 The request is on a desk at Once Caldas, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jhoanner Chávez and Once Caldas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Luis Palacios 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.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
Shots: 13. 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.
In brief
Boardroom$3.2M taken back off the Once Caldas table
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas 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.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Montoya, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2038
Rodrigo Dudok was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.72. 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Once Caldas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 9.55 at 34, 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 Once Caldas 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.
Marked 9.01 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fabián Suárez Chalares. 1‑0 against Leones, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.53 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Once Caldas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom9 Aug 2038
86% of the income goes out in wages at Once Caldas
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.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Once Caldas is running low.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas can pretend not to have heard.
Luis Palacios 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 Jul 2038
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Deportivo Cali the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Once Caldas will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings19 Jul 2038
A brace, and Ivo Visona takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivo Visona provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas can pretend not to have heard.
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 Once Caldas 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas can pretend not to have heard.
8 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.
Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivo Visona 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 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Once Caldas can tell you which week it ends in.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Once Caldas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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 Once Caldas, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Once Caldas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Raffaelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Once Caldas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Fabián Suárez Chalares 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Once Caldas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It needed Santiago Montoya to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Atletico Bucaramanga, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Ivo Visona could not do
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Once Caldas 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.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The name of Jacobo Montes has come up in conversations Once Caldas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.27 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Once Caldas and Real Santander, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas 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.” Once Caldas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luis Palacios 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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.36 — 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.
14 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Ivo Visona could not do
BoardroomThe Once Caldas production line keeps running
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Santa Fe go through and Once Caldas go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.67 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ivo Visona wants continental football; whether Once Caldas can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fabián Suárez Chalares provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fabián Suárez Chalares had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Millonarios were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
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.
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.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Once Caldas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Once Caldas and Deportes Quindio in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Once Caldas found something the first half had given no notice of, and Leones could not hold what they had.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.58 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Once Caldas heard it as anything 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jacobo Montes. 5‑3 against Leones, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsRodrigo Dudok was on a different afternoon to everybody else
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.71 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
A brace, and Ivo Visona takes the afternoon — 8.19
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivo Visona provided it, and the 8.19 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Once Caldas know it.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Jerónimo Osorno: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
Luis Palacios 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.
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.22 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2038
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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 goal that put Atletico Nacional ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Once Caldas equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fabián Suárez Chalares provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shots: 7. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 33 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.
Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
Shots: 12. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.66 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Jan 2038
16 academy players handed senior numbers at Once Caldas
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. James Bacca 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. Mateo Muriel 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivan Ramirez 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jhoanner Chávez 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 Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabián Suárez Chalares 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Once Caldas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Murillo signs something — a contract at Once Caldas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
455 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Once Caldas heard it as anything else.
4 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 102 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chase for Ivo Visona ended with $1.8M changing hands and Cortulua out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Luis Palacios 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 terraces21 Dec 2037
Once Caldas spend $1.8M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.8M for Ivo Visona, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Victor Moreno has left for La Equidad in a $180.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dudok 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. 148 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Fortaleza CEIF for Lucas Robertone 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 155 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Once Caldas has been clear about where Harold Antiñirre stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 162 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadRodrigo Dudok falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Luis Palacios 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 Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dudok 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. 31 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Malcom Palacios and Once Caldas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Luis Palacios was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dudok 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ethan Erhahon, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Novo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
SquadNicolás Vila has become a man the manager trusts
Jhoanner Chávez 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.
Squad19 Oct 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dudok 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Once Caldas know it.
In brief
SquadJacobo Montes has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 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.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Luis Palacios 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Luis Palacios 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.
Santiago Montoya scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Santa Fe, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dudok 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 particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Santa Fe tried to reorganise, Once Caldas did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Montoya, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Novo 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Luis Palacios 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jhoanner Chávez 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.
Shots: 11. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Aug 2037
Jacobo Montes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.82. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Luis Palacios 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.
Marked 8.92 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jesus Cordoba has just signed for Once Caldas, and for once the answer mattered.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Junior the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Once Caldas will enjoy reviewing.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Once Caldas will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Add another name to the list: Universitario Popayan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jacobo Montes. The answer from Once Caldas has not changed — yet.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Deportivo Cali, 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Jhoanner Chávez 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 Once Caldas and Independiente Medellin, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Alianza Petrolera for Petros Kolokotronis 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.
“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 Once Caldas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Freddy Rangel has come up in conversations Once Caldas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Alianza Petrolera have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jacobo Montes. The answer from Once Caldas has not changed — yet.
Luis Palacios 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Luis Palacios 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Santiago Montoya. 3‑1 against Alianza Petrolera, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jáder Quiñónes and Once Caldas agree another 2 years.
“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 Once Caldas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Jacobo Montes again, and this time the name on the line is Valledupar. Once Caldas are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rodrigo Dudok. 2‑1 against Universitario Popayan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Pereyra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Palacios 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.
Marked 8.74 — 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.
A season average of 7.25 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Rodrigo Novo 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.
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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 May 2037
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
15 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.
Shots: 9. 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.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lucas Robertone scored, was marked 7.59, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Jhoanner Chávez 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Marked 8.88. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Once Caldas.
Squad18 May 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dudok 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.
Cortulua held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Once Caldas answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Freddy Rangel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Andres Montero has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Once Caldas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Palacios 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 Once Caldas and Millonarios in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad4 May 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dudok 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. 16 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.09. 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 words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bastian Tapia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Palacios 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 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Freddy Rangel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Petros Kolokotronis’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Once Caldas.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Rodrigo Dudok 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. 37 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.
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.
Luis Palacios 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Once Caldas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 8.88 — 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 words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
0‑3 to Jaguares, 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bastian Tapia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Freddy Rangel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Andrés Murillo 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.
0‑1 to Junior, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Rodrigo Dudok 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.
Shots: 5. 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.
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Luis Palacios 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Pereyra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Juan Raffaelli decided nobody was going anywhere. Real Cartagena had no time left to answer.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bastian Tapia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jhoanner Chávez 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.
Marked 9.06 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Johan Muñoz. 2‑1 against Atletico Nacional, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Freddy Rangel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shots: 7. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Gragera 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.
19 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Alianza Petrolera held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Once Caldas answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Petros Kolokotronis signs something — a contract at Once Caldas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Johan Muñoz
Going 3 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Once Caldas rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Universitario Popayan had no answer to any of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santiago Montoya provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bastian Tapia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 academy players handed senior numbers at Once Caldas
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Player ratings26 Jan 2037
Jacobo Montes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.84. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Freddy Rangel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Palacios 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. Joel Gravenberch has just signed for Once Caldas, and for once the answer mattered.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Santiago Pereyra has agreed terms with La Equidad for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Pereyra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Gragera 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Once Caldas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Jan 2037
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Once Caldas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Jhoanner Chávez 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.
Squad5 Jan 2037
José Gragera 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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Sotelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andres Sinisterra is living that version at Once Caldas, and it tends to show in the first month.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Once Caldas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bastian Tapia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Frank Ruiz has come up in conversations Once Caldas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Bastian Tapia has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Luis Palacios 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Once Caldas 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 Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luis Cardona is living that version at Once Caldas, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Once Caldas interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Patriotas moved on, Frank Ruiz reports back to Once Caldas, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Once Caldas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Once Caldas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Once Caldas can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Once Caldas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Luis Palacios 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 Nov 2036
Words at Once Caldas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Cuesta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Once Caldas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadKevin Cuesta falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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 Once Caldas can pretend not to have heard.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Once Caldas is running low.
“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 Once Caldas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Sotelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Once Caldas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.