Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ABC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafael William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Edson 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.
Bruno Xavier wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Bruno Xavier found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Confiança went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Position 2, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ABC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Confiança for Geilson 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafael William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Edson 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Bruno Leite 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.
7.40, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. ABC had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Éder Martins was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the ABC dressing room was either.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. CSA defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ABC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 ABC, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ABC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Macías 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Xavier signs something — a contract at ABC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Régis Potiguar is on it.
Position 5 on 36 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Billal Brahimi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafael William was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
SquadEdson watches a signing take the shirt he was promised
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Pedro 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.
He is 35, he is from here, and the shirt he was raised to wear has gone to somebody bought for it. The academy staff have noticed, and so has the town.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jhosefer signs something — a contract at ABC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutBrunão has become a man the manager trusts
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ABC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Felipe Guimarães wants continental football; whether ABC can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael William 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Felipe Guimarães signs something — a contract at ABC or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ABC, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.73 for the rest of it.
ABC have gone to Maringá with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.9M — a club that wants Guilherme Pira enough to be asked twice.
ABC asked and Inter de Limeira said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Edson 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 ABC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Igor Bahia takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Igor Bahia provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Wellington Carvalho 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 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alex Mendes 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Pedro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. ABC will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Market14 Sep 2026
One of our own: Relâmpago joins the ABC first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Relâmpago is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
0‑1 to Ponte Preta, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
João Pedro 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 ABC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Éder Martins left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason ABC 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. Wallyson provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ABC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.70 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Edson, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Bruno Leite has agreed terms with Amazonas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Successful dribbles: 49. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Wallyson provided it, and the 9.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bruno Xavier is living that version at ABC, and it tends to show in the first month.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.40 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Lucas Souza 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about ABC and Itabaiana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.