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.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout2 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 1‑2 José Figueiredo left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zé Lucas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Humaitá than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
1 for Victtor Chaves, marked 7.51, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Humaitá had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Half the programme played, position 10, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
7.78, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Humaitá had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout26 Jul 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 1‑2 José Figueiredo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Imperatriz had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vasco da Gama, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Imperatriz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Fabrício Lima 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Imperatriz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
José Parra 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renatto Chira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Imperatriz would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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. Imperatriz will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. André Moura is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bruxo 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Imperatriz know which stage they are at.