A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tubarão 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Rodrigo Negueba, marked 7.89, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tubarão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at GAS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Aug 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.” Paulo Souza kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutEmiliano Molina has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at GAS is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 9.32 — 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.
“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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Henrique Braga was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafinha provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
GAS close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The offer went to Sousa 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
A brace, and Sérgio Rangel takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sérgio Rangel provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deal with Corinthians 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.
$22.0K was the most the club would pay and Sousa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
GAS asked and Maranhão 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 Tubarão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Francisco Sotelo 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. GAS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 GAS, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Paysandu; GAS go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
GAS have gone to Sousa 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at GAS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. GAS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Sérgio Rangel scored in the 85th minute, Independência had already begun thinking about the journey home, and GAS took the lot.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around GAS they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Itabaiana have kept their man, and GAS go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tubarão 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at GAS this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
0‑3 against Águia de Marabá, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cruzeiro keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 19 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around GAS people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cruzeiro; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
$21.0K was the most the club would pay and Sousa were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
In brief
The terracesGAS supporters have found a favourite in Rafinha
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. GAS will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kaká was one of the reasons people came, and $400.0K does not replace that by itself.
The offer went to Sousa 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.
Francisco Sotelo 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. GAS have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at GAS and a proper look at me.” He remains Luverdense’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what GAS can pretend not to have heard.
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 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.
Eduardo Marino 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rodrigo Negueba’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and GAS needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Out, 0‑1 to Atlético Mineiro, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Tuna Luso kept coming because nothing stopped them, and GAS will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Francisco Sotelo 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
“I watch every GAS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Imperatriz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. GAS lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kaká provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A brace, and Sérgio Rangel takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sérgio Rangel provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about GAS and Maranhão in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Francisco Sotelo 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 watch every GAS game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pouso Alegre runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason GAS will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Sotelo 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.
Tocantinópolis held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. GAS answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Marcelo Pacheco 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.
“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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rodrigo Negueba’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and GAS needing him to play as if none of it matters.