Marked for Marcelinho
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Rafael Forster out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maricá will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Jun 2027
7 matches without a win for Maricá
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Maricá are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Maricá, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The deal with Náutico is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market14 Jun 2027
Ypiranga pay $370.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Carvalho 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.
Match12 Jun 2027
3 matches without a goal for Maricá
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Maricá asked and Atlético Goianiense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match8 May 2027
1‑4 to Portuguesa, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad10 May 2027
A one-man rearguard from Yuri Duarte
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad10 May 2027
Words exchanged at Maricá
Wellington 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Felipe Carvalho 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 dugout10 May 2027
Baldória 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.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Nobody left the Maricá 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 dugout10 May 2027
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Arthur Braga to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout10 May 2027
The form table has caught Marcelo
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
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Market
Marcelinho is free to find somewhere else
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Market
The Octávio question follows Maricá around
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Jota
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
Rafael Forster breaks a bone — 107 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Felipe Carvalho 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 Mar 2027
Wellington 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 Maricá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Denilson 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
Wages eat 98% of everything Maricá earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“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 Maricá, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
Rafael Forster breaks a bone — 122 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 Mar 2027
Caio Vitor has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maricá they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rafael Forster and Maricá agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Carvalho 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Maricá
Sandro Silva 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager's exit leaves Rafael Forster exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Rafael Forster is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
The Octávio question follows Maricá around
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Octávio’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market8 Mar 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Marcelinho may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
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The dugout
Marcelinho knocks on the manager's door
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Boardroom
Maricá were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Maricá
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Maricá is running low.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 Maricá, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Maricá
Wellington and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Magno Nunes 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcelinho, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Maricá would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Maricá training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Carvalho 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Wellington 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 Maricá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 103% of the Maricá income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
Wendel counts the days
“I watch every Maricá 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Caio Vitor 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Rafael Carioca signs something — a contract at Maricá or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Victor Pereira knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Victor Pereira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Caio Vitor wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Maricá will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Maricá would admit. It shows on Saturdays.