From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Nov 2027
A bad afternoon for Santa Cruz against ABC
1-2 to ABC , and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Ianson gets it from the manager“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
No place for Raul Steffens on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Santa Cruz pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Ianson Ianson gets it from the manager
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Sep 2027
17 matches without a win for Santa Cruz
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Santa Cruz are no longer polite ones.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Quirino
“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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
48 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Quirino The manager makes an example of Quirino
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Aug 2027
14 matches without a win for Santa Cruz
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Santa Cruz are no longer polite ones.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Pedro Costa gets it from the manager“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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Criciuma will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Jun 2027
5 matches without a win for Santa Cruz
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Santa Cruz are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Jun 2027
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Renato
“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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Experience through the door at Santa Cruz
Zakaria Labyad arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market14 Jun 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Patrick Allan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Santa Cruz .
Match12 Jun 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Corinthians defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 May 2027
47 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match15 May 2027
Three points for Santa Cruz , 2-1 the final word against Sport Recife in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Favela Favela says Santa Cruz went back on their word
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
76 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market19 Apr 2027
The shirt still fits. Danilo Peixoto is back at Santa Cruz , and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market19 Apr 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market19 Apr 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market19 Apr 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Match17 Apr 2027
A 2-1 win over Bahia , earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Balotelli
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Matheus Vinicius asks for a word with the manager“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
A squad written off a fortnight ago has closed ranks. Whatever was said behind that door, it has held so far.
In brief
Squad
The selectors could not leave Quirino out
Boardroom
Santa Cruz spend where nobody can see it
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
108 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Miguel Angelo knocks on the manager's door“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santa Cruz , and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Robinho keeps his manager's voteThe message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Robinho plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Feb 2027
142 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Gabriel Souza
“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.
Pedro Costa Pedro Costa says Santa Cruz went back on their word
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Robinho keeps his manager's voteThe message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Robinho plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Robinho Robinho keeps his manager's vote
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1-0 win over Nautico , earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alex Ruan gets it from the manager“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
In brief
Squad
Eron asks for a word with the manager
Squad
Felipe Alves has taken the shirt
The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Robinho
The terraces
Robinho has his own song now
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Renato signs a new deal“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Renato commits to Santa Cruz for another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
0-1 to Criciuma , and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eron gets it from the manager“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.
Renato Renato signs a new deal
Market3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The captaincy goes to Felipe Alves . It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.