“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tuna Luso can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alfredo Báez. 2‑0 against Trem, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 The request is on a desk at Tuna Luso, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Vasco da Gama for Brabo 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tuna Luso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” André Porto was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Tuna Luso dressing room was either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tuna Luso can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tuna Luso have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Retrô waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tuna Luso is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Marked 6.86 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Lucca, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Dheimison 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” André Porto on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Tuna Luso 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.
“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 Tuna Luso, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lucca did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Up for the corner, and Bruno Cheron delivers — 7.94
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Bruno Cheron scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
At 23 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: Bruno Cheron. 1‑0 against Manauara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Ponte Preta go through and Tuna Luso go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms 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 Tuna Luso can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals in one match, Alfredo Báez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Tuna Luso and GAS.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Tuna Luso now.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Alfredo Báez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.43. 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.