Ezequiel Pizarro 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 34, with 115 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
Ezequiel Pizarro 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ibrahim Dagga is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ibrahim Dagga signs something — a contract at Humaitá or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Humaitá will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Humaitá, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A side in position 3 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Vinícius Cressi plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on André Moura are not good
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Humaitá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Maracanã, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
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 0‑1 José Figueiredo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Humaitá 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.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 17. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” José Figueiredo 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 Humaitá, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Shots: 11. 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Central; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sport Recife keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Humaitá asked and Atlético Goianiense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Humaitá this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Humaitá know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Humaitá, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The coaching staff have set Klenderson Albornoz something separate to do. Whether it is a weakness being addressed or a strength being sharpened, nobody outside the building will know until it shows up on a Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Humaitá asked and Trem said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fábio Neves 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Humaitá will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Humaitá have done the hard part with Novorizontino, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Humaitá has been clear about where Jane Moreno stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Humaitá know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Barbosa knocks on the manager's door