Marked for Samuel Lima
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
Júnior Pacheco damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Horizonte this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Horizonte training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Castillo 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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Heitor 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.73, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Horizonte may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Horizonte right now
3 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Horizonte this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Tiago Silva
16 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match31 Oct 2026
Juazeirense made Horizonte work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Juninho at his very best
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Horizonte.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Horizonte
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Heitor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Diego Rangel took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Horizonte tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nobody wants to play Horizonte right now
6 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Juninho 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Horizonte training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Castillo 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Tiago Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.07 — 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
Triumph
Match12 Sep 2026
Horizonte make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Horizonte have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Horizonte know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Horizonte
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Castillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Horizonte
Bruno Sabino 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over União, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.32 — 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Horizonte, another week without a signature from Lucas Rodrigues.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Rodrygo Mendes could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bentonit Ijevan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Horizonte
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Castillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bruno Sabino 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Diego Rangel is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Diego Rangel has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
The knee: Arthur Rocha out for 17 days
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Horizonte lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Rodrygo Braga, 19, steals the show — 8.24
Marked 8.24 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match29 Aug 2026
Horizonte make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Horizonte have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Juninho 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rodrygo Braga. 1‑0 against América de Natal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Fernando Gomes ran the middle of the pitch — 7.09
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.09, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Horizonte
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Júnior Figueiredo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Rodrygo Mendes, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad31 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Douglas Dias
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Horizonte will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tiago Silva takes the match ball home
5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match8 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 10‑1 against ASA, and it could have been more.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Diego Rangel had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Rodrygo Braga, 19, steals the show — 8.23
Marked 8.23 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.20, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
7.61, 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samuel Lima and Horizonte agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Facundo Castillo 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
11 goals as Horizonte and ASA go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 11 goals between Horizonte and ASA, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A debut Rodrygo Braga will not forget — 7.22
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.22 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 6 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Lucas Rodrigues and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Samuel Lima 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Treze left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Rodrigues trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.