Gonçalo Tabuaço and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Matías Lacava 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Amarante can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Amarante will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at Amarante 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.
A season-long audition: Sampaio Corrêa still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Amarante's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Amarante opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Felipe Cardoso stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
In brief
BoardroomThe Amarante production line keeps running
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Nelson Abbey 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.
Enzo has left for Arouca in a $170.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Matías Lacava 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. São Paulo have kept their man, and Amarante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A brace, and Matías Lacava takes the afternoon — 8.60
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matías Lacava provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Alejandro Alfaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Matías Lacava 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Oliveirense.
Nelson Abbey 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 Matías Lacava was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Amarante support went home talking about one name.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Fabio Carvalho, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Gonçalo Tabuaço 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 Matías Lacava was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Fabio Carvalho after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Amarante have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gonçalo Tabuaço 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Amarante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Lacava 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Fabio Carvalho after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against São João de Ver in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Position 3, 33 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tobías Medina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Amarante are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Batata is 20, and Amarante have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
“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 Arouca, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lee Hyun-Ju 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arouca can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Famalicao held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Arouca answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.