Marked for Tomás Roco
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces19 Nov 2029
Anger at Paysandu spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match17 Nov 2029
Nowhere to hide for Paysandu
0‑4 against Bragantino, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market19 Nov 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Paysandu
João Schmidt 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Giovanni González 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 dugout19 Nov 2029
William 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.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Marked 6.74 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
The game went through Kleiton Pego — 6.68
Marked 6.68 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Paysandu dressing room in a hurry
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Paysandu
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Oct 2029
30 matches without a win for Paysandu
The run now stands at 30, and the questions being asked around Paysandu are no longer polite ones.
The terraces22 Oct 2029
Supporters organise against the Paysandu board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market22 Oct 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words exchanged at Paysandu
João Schmidt 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
The goals have deserted Paysandu
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Paysandu can tell you which week it ends in.
Match20 Oct 2029
Juventude left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 Oct 2029
João Dalla Corte 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vitor Lamounier and Paysandu agree another 4 years.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The form table has caught William
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The dugout
Tomás Roco gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Aug 2029
21 matches without a win for Paysandu
The run now stands at 21, and the questions being asked around Paysandu are no longer polite ones.
Match18 Aug 2029
Chastening afternoon for Paysandu
A 0‑3 beating by Internacional was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match18 Aug 2029
Paysandu leaking at the back
7 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad20 Aug 2029
João Schmidt 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 dugout20 Aug 2029
“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.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
Nobody left the Paysandu 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.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Éder Rocha to a room that had heard them before.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Tomás Roco 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
5 new faces, and Paysandu are still learning each other
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Fortaleza's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fortaleza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad6 Nov 2028
The knee: João Ricardo out for 60 days
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fortaleza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
Supporters organise against the Fortaleza board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match6 Nov 2028
Fortaleza sink to position 18
20 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market6 Nov 2028
Manoel is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fortaleza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fortaleza heard it as anything else.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad6 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Fortaleza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.