Marked for Dylan Ledesma
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Aug 2030
José Cabrera: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Juventude have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Marcos Paulo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Marked 9.09 — 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.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Aug 2030
“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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Lucca Prior
5 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Match10 Dec 2029
Juventude refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 36 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.
Market10 Dec 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Juventude have had the benefit of it.
Market10 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventude is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Oct 2029
Marcos Paulo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Pedro Rocha
“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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Oct 2029
Marcos Paulo in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2029
65 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad1 Oct 2029
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
In brief
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Squad
The manager makes an example of Bruninho
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Market
The clock does Bruno Henrique’s negotiating for him
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Boardroom
The Juventude production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Aug 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventude is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market13 Aug 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.
Squad13 Aug 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Marcos Paulo 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.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Marked 8.44 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Juventude may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom29 Jan 2029
Pressure builds in the Juventude boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Alan Franco in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.