3 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.92 beside his name.
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.
A performance of 8.69 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Arthur Neves 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Paulo Teixeira, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nova Iguaçu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Rafael was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Nova Iguaçu 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.
The name of Bruno Souza keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Nova Iguaçu say nothing, which says plenty.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Ruan Ribeiro
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Nova Iguaçu would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Mota 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.
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Nova Iguaçu.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Léo Rafael 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wender was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paulo Teixeira after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Wender trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Marked 8.98 — 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.
Arthur Neves 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ruan Ribeiro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Nova Iguaçu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wender 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.
Arthur Neves 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 Nova Iguaçu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nova Iguaçu has been clear about where Philippe stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mota’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nova Iguaçu needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nova Iguaçu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ruan Ribeiro signs something — a contract at Nova Iguaçu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
1‑4 to Portuguesa, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match3 Oct 2026
After 10 games, Nova Iguaçu finally taste it again
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Portuguesa; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Nova Iguaçu dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wender was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Paulo Teixeira on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nova Iguaçu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paulo Teixeira after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Luverdense in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diego Zalazar has just signed for Nova Iguaçu, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
He is 20, and nobody at Nova Iguaçu signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Fernandinho is still being punished for one mistake
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.
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 Pedro Thomaz is on it.
Porto Vitória will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nova Iguaçu were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Marked 9.83 — 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.
Arthur Neves 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.
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.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsXandinho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Lucas Cruz obliged against Ferroviário. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Nova Iguaçu.
Mota 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 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.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Paulo Teixeira was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Nova Iguaçu dressing room was either.
Ceilândia will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Nova Iguaçu were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Fernandinho takes the afternoon — 8.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fernandinho provided it, and the 8.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Samuel Queiroz 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Henrique Queiroz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Baiano 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Renato Batista 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.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Xandinho was at the centre of it, Aparecidense were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Xandinho provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Xandinho. 3‑2 against Aparecidense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wender was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.