Porto Velho will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Goiânia were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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.
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.
8 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 José Assis left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Viana, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Batista 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 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Goiânia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Batista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Raphael Soares has let it be known that he does not like the way Goiânia are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Henrique Cavalcante 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” José Assis after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Raphael Soares'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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Telavi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Two goals and a mark of 7.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Sérgio Gomes 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.
7 goals in one match, André Batista on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Goiânia and Ceilândia.
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.
Marked 8.53 — 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.
In brief
SquadAndré Batista falls out with a teammate over standards
Vila Nova go through and Goiânia go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. João Pedro has just signed for Goiânia, and for once the answer mattered.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Goiânia and Aparecidense in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Sérgio Gomes at his very best
“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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
Sérgio Gomes 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.
A brace, and Sérgio Gomes takes the afternoon — 8.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sérgio Gomes provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Júnior Pereira 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.
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Goiânia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Batista 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, José Assis could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sérgio Gomes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.