The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gabriel Peixoto did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Central this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A performance of 9.70 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Showman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Danilo Souza 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.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcelo Neves. 2‑0 against Barcelona de Ilhéus, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Danilo Souza 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Central, another week without a signature from Marcelo Peixoto.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marcos Neves on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Danilo Souza 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Central, another week without a signature from Marcelo Neves.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Central this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gabriel Peixoto has come out of that comparison in the side, and Central have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Central would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Gabriel Peixoto, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. ASA spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 7.92. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Central training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Santos 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.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Marcelo Neves takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcelo Neves provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gabriel Peixoto did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marcelo Peixoto 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Treze tried to reorganise, Central did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Danilo Souza 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nicolás Álvarez'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.