From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Leomar Mosquera 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jorge Páez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Trujillanos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Sep 2026
Carabobo go through and Trujillanos go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Trujillanos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leomar Mosquera 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trujillanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gabriel Toloza dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin González, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Greyberth Trompetera 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Francisco Bareiro has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Trujillanos will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Álbaro Polo obliged against Zamora. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Trujillanos.
Match19 Aug 2026
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Álbaro Polo decided nobody was going anywhere. Zamora had no time left to answer.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Álbaro Polo at 21 — 8.46
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Álbaro Polo did not need any: 8.46, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match19 Aug 2026
Nobody wants to play Trujillanos right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Steven Pabón delivers — 7.49
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Steven Pabón scored, was marked 7.49, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Francisco Bareiro 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Aug 2026
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Trujillanos keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Enderson Torrealba decided otherwise. Deportivo Tachira had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.60, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Enderson Torrealba takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Enderson Torrealba provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market17 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and José Rivas Gamboa reports back to Trujillanos with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Álbaro Polo at 21 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Álbaro Polo did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trujillanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
A 3‑2 win over Deportivo Lara, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Both of them Jorge Páez's — 8.39
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trujillanos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
Zulia made Trujillanos work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Leomar Mosquera 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leomar Mosquera, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Francisco Bareiro’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
Slutsk come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Trujillanos did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
123 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Trujillanos know what they have.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Carlos Ortíz and Trujillanos agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Francisco Bareiro 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin De La Hoz, and the manager let it.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Trujillanos has been clear about where Joantony Carmona stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Juan Carlos Ortíz’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Nobody could get near Jorge Páez
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.