A 1‑4 beating by Sport Recife was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
The mood at Criciuma has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Position 19 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Eduardo scored, was marked 7.23, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Criciuma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Criciuma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Douglas Martins after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bruno Alves 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Gonçalves trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Atlético Mineiro in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Criciuma will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody at Criciuma is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Diego Gonçalves’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Criciuma needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Yuri Tanque 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Alves trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Aírton wants continental football; whether Criciuma can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Thiaguinho has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pedro is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Criciuma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aírton 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Waguininho has written the date down.
Position 3, 14 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Criciuma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yuri Tanque 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thales trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.