The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Fluminense will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and John Kennedy takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. John Kennedy provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marcos Correia 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 John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Caio Barbosa kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Athletico Paranaense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑1 win over América Mineiro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcos Correia. 1‑0 against Vasco da Gama, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Athletico Paranaense lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Athletico Paranaense may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
19 goals in 28 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
John Kennedy 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Athletico Paranaense can tell you which week it ends in.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Cruzeiro have accepted the money. What Athletico Paranaense do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Olimpia for Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.4M has been paid because Thiago Maia is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Athletico Paranaense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Thalisson Gabriel is living that version at Athletico Paranaense, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Coritiba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Coritiba have gone to Arouca 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.
Coritiba asked and CSKA Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Coritiba is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Walisson scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have shaken hands with Internacional; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match19 Jun 2027
Marcos Correia wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Marcos Correia found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Mirassol went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Athletico Paranaense have done the hard part with Coritiba, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
At 18 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alex Telles and Athletico Paranaense agree another 3 years.
The name of Dudu Marques has come up in conversations Athletico Paranaense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everybody at Athletico Paranaense saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Coritiba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Coritiba people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Coritiba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chase for Denilson Goulart ended with $950.0K changing hands and Ferroviária out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer from Athletic Club for Khensane 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.
Jacy Maranhão 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Geovane Meurer wants continental football; whether Coritiba can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Coritiba can pretend not to have heard.
Coritiba have gone to Ferroviária 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 offer went to Ferroviária this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Coritiba go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.24 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Jacy Maranhão 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.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Breno Lopes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Coritiba.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Breno Lopes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.65. 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.
8.29. 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.
7 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
Jacy Maranhão 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.
Thalisson Gabriel 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.
“I watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Treze runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paulo Tavares after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Melo 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Coritiba, and 0 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
At 18 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Bruno Melo 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.
Thalisson Gabriel 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.
“I watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at São Luiz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Melo 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.
Thalisson Gabriel 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Coritiba, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Coritiba, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Words at Coritiba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacy Maranhão 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Coritiba can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Melo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thalisson Gabriel 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.
“I watch every Coritiba game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at São Luiz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Bruno Melo 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.
Vítor Martinelli 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Thalisson Gabriel has his answer from Coritiba; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Coritiba will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.