The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Fluminense will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and John Kennedy takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. John Kennedy provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marcos Correia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Caio Barbosa kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Athletico Paranaense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Kennedy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑1 win over América Mineiro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcos Correia. 1‑0 against Vasco da Gama, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Athletico Paranaense they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marcos Correia 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 John Kennedy 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 John Kennedy signs something — a contract at Athletico Paranaense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Mirassol next, and one man in the Athletico Paranaense dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Athletico Paranaense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Athletico Paranaense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Benavídez 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Athletico Paranaense told Thiago Maia something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Athletico Paranaense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Athletico Paranaense has to find a result from somewhere.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Nomme Kalju had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense 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 Gastón Benavídez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Athletico Paranaense lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Marcos Correia decided nobody was going anywhere. Fluminense had no time left to answer.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kauan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Athletico Paranaense, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dalberson is living that version at Athletico Paranaense, and it tends to show in the first month.
The phone has started ringing about Habraão again, and this time the name on the line is Grêmio. Athletico Paranaense are listening politely and promising nothing.
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Athletico Paranaense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Jair 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.
“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 Athletico Paranaense hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Athletico Paranaense have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and John Kennedy decided nobody was going anywhere. Vasco da Gama had no time left to answer.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Athletico Paranaense asked and Atlético Mineiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A loan is a long audition, and Tevis passed his months ago. Athletico Paranaense sign what they already know — the rarest kind of certainty the market sells.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Cruzeiro have accepted the money. What Athletico Paranaense do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Olimpia for Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.4M has been paid because Thiago Maia is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Athletico Paranaense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Thalisson Gabriel is living that version at Athletico Paranaense, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Internacional; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match19 Jun 2027
Marcos Correia wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Marcos Correia found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Mirassol went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Athletico Paranaense have done the hard part with Coritiba, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alex Telles and Athletico Paranaense agree another 3 years.
The name of Dudu Marques has come up in conversations Athletico Paranaense were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everybody at Athletico Paranaense 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.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Éder Costa has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Benavídez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I watch every Athletico Paranaense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Brasil de Pelotas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Bruninho obliged against Manauara. 5‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Athletico Paranaense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Athletico Paranaense and Santos, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Leider Pacheco 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Benavídez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marcos Correia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dudu Marques was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Grêmio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Athletico Paranaense and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
The dugout17 May 2027
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 0‑2 Caio Barbosa left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by 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 Athletico Paranaense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
21 goals in 16 games at América Mineiro — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Athletico Paranaense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Marcos Correia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Benavídez 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.
“I watch every Athletico Paranaense game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Brasil de Pelotas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Julimar is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Athletico Paranaense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Athletico Paranaense will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Nobody at Athletico Paranaense 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Athletico Paranaense know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Athletico Paranaense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Athletico Paranaense the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Juan Camilo Portilla plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Beitar Jerusalem had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Éder Silva has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Habraão wants continental football; whether Athletico Paranaense can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dudu Marques was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Maricá to sit and watch. I want to come back to Athletico Paranaense and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
5 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.
Nobody at Athletico Paranaense 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Athletico Paranaense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Athletico Paranaense may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
21 goals in 16 games at América Mineiro — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Athletico Paranaense updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Marcos Correia 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“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 Athletico Paranaense, and 0 appearances in 5 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 Julimar is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Julimar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The deal with Nottingham Forest is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Athletico Paranaense have paid $5.1M for Marcos Correia, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcos Correia has just signed for Athletico Paranaense, and for once the answer mattered.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kevin Viveros was one of the reasons people came, and $13.4M does not replace that by itself.
Athletico Paranaense offered $1.4M; Água Santa said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
$5.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
He is going to Athletico Paranaense, the club has $5.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Brasil de Pelotas have done the hard part with Athletico Paranaense, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ludogorets is saying, and nobody at Brasil de Pelotas is enjoying the guessing.
Brasil de Pelotas asked and Dinamo Makhachkala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antônio Correia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brasil de Pelotas have made the call to Vitória. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alejandro Encina and Brasil de Pelotas agree another 3 years.
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 Victor Freitas is on it.
Brasil de Pelotas have accepted the money. What Athletico Paranaense do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sampaio Corrêa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Athletico Paranaense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$7.7M on the table at Nottingham Forest. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Athletico Paranaense have had the benefit of it.
Everything agreed with Ludogorets, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Brasil de Pelotas offered $300.0K; Guarani said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Bruno Pirri 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Soria and Brasil de Pelotas agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Athletico Paranaense people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Athletico Paranaense scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Athletico Paranaense have gone to Brasil de Pelotas with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Athletico Paranaense asked and Criciúma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$1.4M on the table at Água Santa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Athletico Paranaense offered $1.6M; Operário Ferroviário said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.5M — a club that wants Richard enough to be asked twice.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Brasil de Pelotas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer went to Guarani this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boavista have kept their man, and Brasil de Pelotas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Alex Nogueira is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Brasil de Pelotas has been clear about where Rafael Cunha stands, which is more than many ever get.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Half the programme played, position 12, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Marcos Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Nobody at Brasil de Pelotas 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bruno Pirri and Brasil de Pelotas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Marcos Araujo could afford to be generous.
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 Victor Freitas is on it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brasil de Pelotas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Azuriz next, and one man in the Brasil de Pelotas dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Bruno Tavares is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcos Correia signs something — a contract at Brasil de Pelotas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutPesadelo asks for a word with the manager
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Brasil de Pelotas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Marcos Correia 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.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Marcos Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
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 Alex Nogueira is on it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Brasil de Pelotas can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Victor Freitas is on it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Brasil de Pelotas can tell you which week it ends in.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabrício Oya and Brasil de Pelotas agree another 3 years.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than André Machado
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Lucas Rangel 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Pesadelo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Márcio Tavares has come out of that comparison in the side, and Brasil de Pelotas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Marcos Araujo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Brasil de Pelotas 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Samuel Neves has his answer from Brasil de Pelotas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Brasil de Pelotas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Neves trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marcos Araujo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Rafael Cunha
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
A mark of 7.79, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
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.” Marcos Araujo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Brasil de Pelotas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Brasil de Pelotas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Brasil de Pelotas 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Pesadelo has written the date down.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Diego Viana had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Torreense for César Moura 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcos Araujo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Brasil de Pelotas 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Rafael Cunha
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Bruno Tavares obliged against Maringá. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Brasil de Pelotas.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.96 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Bnei Sakhnin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He is 16 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.
Minute 86, against São José, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. César Moura had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Victor Freitas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Victor Freitas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Brasil de Pelotas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marcos Correia 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 had been thinking. Victor Freitas 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rodrigo Peixoto and Brasil de Pelotas agree another 2 years.
The dugout3 Aug 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 0‑1 Marcos Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Brasil de Pelotas, and both men came out saying it was fine.