40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Retrô lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Joinville will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Antonio Porto has pre-agreed a move to Retrô, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Araujo is still paying for one afternoon at Retrô
The dugoutDaniel Araujo dropped after a run of poor form
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Trator is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcos Moura 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Guilherme Moreira has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Igor Farias after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
In brief
The dugoutNene left out for tactical reasons at Retrô
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Igor Morais is living that version at Retrô, and it tends to show in the first month.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
7 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.
The dugout31 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 0‑5 Igor Farias left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1‑5 to Brusque, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Tombense will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Retrô were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Boavista leaves Retrô explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
He is 14 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.
24 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Igor Farias could afford to be generous.
Shots: 14. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
1‑4 to Maringá, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.35 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 14 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Every first appearance is one of two stories, and this was the harder one: 4.70, and a long walk to the tunnel. The second appearance is the one that decides what the first one meant.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 12 goals between Retrô and Londrina, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Danilo Amaral 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. João Araujo 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Araujo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.