7.83, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
19 goals in 26 games at Cascavel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Athletico Paranaense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Nobody at Athletico Paranaense 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 easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Terán and Athletico Paranaense agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Bruno Henrique 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Benavídez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Esquivel signs something — a contract at Athletico Paranaense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Juan Camilo Portilla, marked 7.36, 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Athletico Paranaense and Criciúma, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Benavídez 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
1 for Raul, marked 7.75, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Benavídez 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.
12 goals in 17 games at Cascavel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Athletico Paranaense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Athletico Paranaense has been clear about where Julimar stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Everything agreed with Atlético Mineiro, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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 7.99 for the rest of it.
Add another name to the list: Torpedo Kutaisi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Felipinho. The answer from Athletico Paranaense has not changed — yet.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Something was said to Santos and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vitor Martins after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 Raul is on it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Felipe Chiqueti did not need any: 8.15, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Raul scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.85, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Viveros and Athletico Paranaense agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Athletico Paranaense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Maricá runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Athletico Paranaense 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Athletico Paranaense has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Athletico Paranaense can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro García 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 32, he has been here since he was a boy, and the shirt he grew up expecting has been given to somebody flown in for it. That grievance belongs to the town as much as to the player.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Athletico Paranaense would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Athletico Paranaense ran out of time with Fluminense. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fábio Assis 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kaká is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
The dugoutRaul has become a man the manager trusts
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Athletico Paranaense and Fluminense have settled on $1.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Athletico Paranaense had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Raul reports back to Athletico Paranaense with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The name of Habraão has come up in conversations Athletico Paranaense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
17 games, 5 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Athletico Paranaense now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“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 Athletico Paranaense, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Kevin Viveros has come up in conversations Athletico Paranaense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $998.8K — a club that wants Lucas Ramon enough to be asked twice.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
17 appearances and 5 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
12 goals in 19 games at América Mineiro — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Athletico Paranaense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Itabirito waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Athletico Paranaense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Goiânia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Athletico Paranaense offered $2.4M; Operário Ferroviário said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
1 for Raul, marked 7.91, 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.3M — a club that wants Sérgio Gomes enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Benavídez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Athletico Paranaense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Vitor Martins could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dudu Marques was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Stiven Mendoza was the best thing in any of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Renan Viana
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Amazonas spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
“I watch every Athletico Paranaense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shirak runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
0‑3 to Coritiba, 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.
Position 2, 30 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 terraces2 Nov 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 5 of the 25 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Atlético Goianiense will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Athletico Paranaense were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Raul scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Felipinho and Athletico Paranaense agree another 4 years.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Benavídez 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Kevin Viveros was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Marked 8.37 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Vitor Martins could afford to be generous.
5 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.
1 for Raul, marked 7.91, 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Carlos Terán delivers — 7.65
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Carlos Terán scored, was marked 7.65, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Felipinho scored, was marked 7.36, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
At 21 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.