A brace, and Marcos Cunha takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcos Cunha provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Goianésia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Neyzinho 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateus Lustosa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goianésia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domingos Andrade was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Éder Pereira after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Rio Branco? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Goianésia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Neyzinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domingos Andrade 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.
Everybody at Goianésia saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Freitas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Goianésia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Neyzinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Marcos Cunha 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Goianésia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matheus Freitas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Goianésia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Neyzinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Goianésia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Romário 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Júnior Silva signs something — a contract at Goianésia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Goianésia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rio Branco will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Goianésia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Leonardo Ribeiro 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Vitor Moreira in the middle of it, and Rio Branco unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
A performance of 8.47 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Éder Pereira kept it short after the 4‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The words a physio says slowly. 119 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Something was said to Vitor Moreira and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Éder Pereira on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Out, 0‑4 to Náutico, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Vitor Moreira takes the afternoon — 9.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vitor Moreira provided it, and the 9.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.25 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
10 goals in one match, Mateus Peixoto on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Goianésia and Luverdense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
7.06, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The offer from Sumgayit for Júnior Moreira was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.92 beside his name.
Leonardo Ribeiro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Neyzinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.