Marked for Santiago Salcedo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 45. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matheus Pereira
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruzeiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Feb 2028
3‑1 against Boston River, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Jonathan Calleri was at the centre of the description.
Match26 Feb 2028
The run at home goes on for Cruzeiro
17 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Camutanga: 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.” Cruzeiro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Luis Sinisterra
17 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Feb 2028
Cruzeiro cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jan 2028
Matheus Pereira damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market31 Jan 2028
KV Oostende come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cruzeiro did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Jan 2028
The name of Fabrício Bruno has come up in conversations Cruzeiro were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Sinisterra 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Nov 2027
0‑3, and no way to dress it up. A derby defeat follows a supporter to work on Monday, and this one will follow him all week.
Match27 Nov 2027
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.21, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Matheus Pereira 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cruzeiro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Zé Marcos for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Cruzeiro will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Sinisterra 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Salcedo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 53. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 May 2027
Santiago Salcedo 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Sinisterra 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.
Match29 May 2027
Bahia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Rojas, and the manager let it.
Squad31 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting William's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The terraces31 May 2027
The spotlight tightens on Cássio
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Market31 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruzeiro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings31 May 2027
A mark of 5.04 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 May 2027
Cruzeiro through in the cup
A 4‑2 win over Sampaio Correa, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Both of them Wanderson's — 8.12
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.12, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 May 2027
Wanderson among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Wanderson on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cruzeiro and Sampaio Correa.
Squad24 May 2027
Luis Sinisterra 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.
Match22 May 2027
The run at home goes on for Cruzeiro
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad24 May 2027
No hiding place for Cássio
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cássio, and the manager let it.
Match22 May 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Matheus Pereira’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cruzeiro.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Luis Sinisterra 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.
Squad10 May 2027
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rodriguinho and Cruzeiro agree another 4 years.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Cruzeiro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Boa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
Santiago Salcedo 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Sinisterra 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.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
“I watch every Cruzeiro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Boa runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Chico da Costa
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruzeiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cruzeiro may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Santiago Salcedo 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
Chico da Costa damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Match19 Mar 2027
A European lesson for Cruzeiro
1‑2 against Atletico Nacional. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Luis Sinisterra 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabrício Bruno, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
Chico da Costa damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Fabrício Bruno 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Feb 2027
Fabrício Bruno wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Luis Sinisterra 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.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Cruzeiro release $7.2M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Luis Sinisterra has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cruzeiro 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.