Samuel Carvalho 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between GAS and Águia de Marabá, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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 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.
8.00. 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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. GAS lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
At 20 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.
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. 39 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.
“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.
Altos held the lead for 4 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marcelo Nardo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at GAS, and both men came out saying it was fine.
46 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guilherme Tavares was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marcelo Nardo on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Samuel Carvalho 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.
He is 18 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.
The medical room confirms 43 days on the sidelines for André Araujo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout31 Aug 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.” Marcelo Nardo kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Fernando Guimarães will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at GAS escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fernando Guimarães provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Martins did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Samuel Carvalho 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. Guilherme Tavares 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 finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Paulo Souza'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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 3‑3 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Perninha
0‑4 against Internacional, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Márcio Borges takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Márcio Borges provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Henrique Martins did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.