It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caxias this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Caxias training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio 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.
Nobody at Caxias 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Caxias know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Wanderson’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Caxias needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Caxias has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Bruno Moura 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.
He is 23 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.
A 1‑0 win over Floresta, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Caxias training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernardo 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.
16 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 dugout8 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.” Márcio Nogueira kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caxias 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 Bernardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. Volta Redonda had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Caxias, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Caxias have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ignacio 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 Lucas Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
19 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.
Everybody at Caxias saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Guilherme Gomes 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Márcio Nogueira after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kauã Brasília is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Everybody at Caxias 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.
Wagninho 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Márcio Nogueira after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Maringá will replay every second of the added time for a week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Caxias will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
This is not rotation. Roberto has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Caxias is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Caxias training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caxias this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Caxias and Brusque in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palmeiras have kept their man, and Caxias go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Pedro Raul at his very best
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Caxias will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Rato 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pedro Raul. 2‑0 against Boavista, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Caxias have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Caxias will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Caxias asked and Coritiba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Everything agreed with Fluminense, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexsandro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 9.29 — 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Caxias training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Moura 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.
Wesley Rodrigues 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alegria 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.
“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.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Alegria was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
Alexsandro, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caxias this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Bruno Moura 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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“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 Caxias, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Moura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caxias this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alegria 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Márcio Nogueira on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The clubs have shaken hands with Corinthians; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Alegria from Nova Iguaçu for $1.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Bruno Moura 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.
Wesley Rodrigues 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Nobody at Caxias 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Caxias, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Caxias know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Alegria was one of the reasons people came, and $1.6M does not replace that by itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Goiânia have kept their man, and Nova Iguaçu go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
Ceará have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad21 Dec 2026
5 new faces, and Nova Iguaçu 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.
$6.9M was the most the club would pay and Operário Ferroviário were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
$1.6M on the table at Nova Iguaçu. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Caxias asked and Santos 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Márcio Figueiredo 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.
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 Luan Polli is on it.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Thomasel again, and this time the name on the line is Santa Cruz de Natal. Nova Iguaçu are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Athletico Paranaense have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nova Iguaçu have made the call to Vitória. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.