Marked for Isael
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Iago Santos beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match30 Nov 2026
First, on 35 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Match28 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Boavista did not have in the autumn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Boavista
Crystopher 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
145% of the income goes out in wages at Boavista
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Gabriel Conceição
12 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Isael 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.
Match30 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Boavista
Position 1, 35 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Roberto Fonseca was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Boavista dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match7 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Boavista do not lose
9 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Lucas Silva
13 goals and a season average of 7.45 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Crystopher 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Three points for Boavista, 2‑1 the final word against Goianésia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Boavista training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isael 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Iago Santos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Roberto Fonseca kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
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The dugout
No hiding place for Tito
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Player ratings
Isael was unplayable
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Tito
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Nov 2026
28 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Boavista did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Boavista training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iago Santos 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Isael 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 145% of the Boavista income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Iago Santos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Portuguesa leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Roberto Fonseca after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
9‑0, and Lucas Silva took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Boavista tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lucas Silva takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad10 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Isael, 38, rolls back the years — 8.11
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Boavista
Crystopher and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Lucas Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Boavista and Luverdense, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.71 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.