Position 18 and 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Lavega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ney 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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
Diogo Batista is tired of being somebody else's player
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Coritiba where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Bahia until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Something was said to Ney and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joaquín Lavega trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
13 combined actions and 6.90. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Santos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 appearances at Amazonas and the goals have stopped going in. Coritiba lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Coritiba are still learning each other
“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 Coritiba, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jacy Maranhão 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Coritiba will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arthur Daniel is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Coritiba, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Éberth is on it.
“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 Coritiba, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Carlos Júnior wants continental football; whether Coritiba can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Coritiba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Coritiba has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nobody at Coritiba 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Coritiba know it.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Boavista did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.1M for Crystopher, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Fluminense paid $3.7M and Coritiba took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Coritiba had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The chase for Ney ended with $1.1M changing hands and Goiânia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.6M — a club that wants Fernando Alves enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Coritiba have done the hard part with Flamengo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Coritiba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Crystopher was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $5.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Coritiba are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Goiânia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Goiânia had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Coritiba paid $1.1M and Goiânia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Goiânia asked and Maricá said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fernando Neto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Goiânia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Figueirense is saying, and nobody at Goiânia is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henrique Carvalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
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. Goiânia will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Goiânia, another week without a signature from Fernando Neto.
5 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.
Tubarão 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.
At 18 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrique Carvalho 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.
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.
A season average of 7.14 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Goiânia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiânia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Goiânia and Rio Branco in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 9.57 — 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Henrique Carvalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ney signs something — a contract at Goiânia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Goiânia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 2, 31 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 Goiânia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
4 groups that do not mix, and 3 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
He is 21 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.
“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 Goiânia, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Goiânia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Goiânia and Nova Iguaçu in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Henrique Carvalho 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.
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.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Luverdense; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Goiânia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Felipe Cavalcante was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Goiânia dressing room was either.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Tubarão 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateus Amaral 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gabriel Assis is on it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Fernando Alves has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fernando Alves provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 goals in one match, Daniel Costa on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Goiânia and Porto Vitória.
At 22 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Wesley Farias was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Goiânia are taken apart by Flamengo — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mateus Amaral 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.
In brief
The dugoutGabriel Assis has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutTubarão left out for tactical reasons at Goiânia
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vinícius Nogueira provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Tubarão 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 Henrique Carvalho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Mingachevir have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Márcio Batista. The answer from Goiânia has not changed — yet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tubarão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Goiânia man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Vinícius Nogueira was the best thing in any of them.