From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
0‑1 against Universidad de Chile, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nicolás Avellaneda 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Juan Pablo Salomoni 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match22 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Everton de Viña del Mar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Méndez, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matias Jara after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
Huachipato are out and Union La Calera go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Matías Ríos has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union La Calera they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nicolás Avellaneda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match15 Aug 2026
Cobresal left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristián Gutiérrez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Matías Ríos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Matías Campos López takes the afternoon — 8.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matías Campos López provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Nicolás Avellaneda 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jorge Sierralta 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gary Valdes 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Claudio Beausejour 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gary Nunez 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Union La Calera are still strangers to each other
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolás Avellaneda and Union La Calera agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 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 Union La Calera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Union La Calera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Pablo Salomoni 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yerko Leiva, and the manager let it.
Match1 Aug 2026
Deportes Limache left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matias Jara after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Matías Ortiz beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.