From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.65, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 9.04 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Éder Chaux
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.85, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Brayan Fernández was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match15 Aug 2026
Junior left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 20 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.
In brief
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The dugout
Éder Chaux gets it from the manager
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Squad
Esteven Salguero falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Brayan Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Dany Angulo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Patriotas have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gabriel Garcia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Carlos Muriel is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Johan Mina 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gustavo Cardona 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kevin Álvarez 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑3 to Independiente Medellin, 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Éder Chaux and Patriotas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Patriotas
Brayan Fernández and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Kevin Salazar
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Patriotas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esteven Salguero 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.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Patriotas dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months and counting on Éder Chaux
Still no offer on the table, and Éder Chaux’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Patriotas
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.