The Arouca Chronicle
Match18 Dec 2030
The cup run ends for Arouca
2‑4 against Sporting CP, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
A brace, and Boris Popović takes the afternoon — 7.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Boris Popović provided it, and the 7.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
Javi Sánchez, 33, rolls back the years — 8.39
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.39 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Aurelien Guernier: 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.” Arouca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Tempers go at Arouca
Ignacio de Arruabarrena 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.
Match18 Dec 2030
6 goals as Arouca and Sporting CP go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Arouca and Sporting CP, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match21 Dec 2030
Lee Hyun-Ju sends Arouca past Tondela
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lee Hyun-Ju’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arouca.
Player ratings23 Dec 2030
One of those days for Lee Hyun-Ju
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.85, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Afonso Duarte 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.
In brief
- Squad Words at Arouca training over how hard people work
- Market Arouca may not be able to give Thiago González what he wants
- Player ratings Nobody could get near Rubén Funes