The Vila Nova Courier
Squad19 Apr 2027
The knee: Dellatorre out for 95 days
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vila Nova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match17 Apr 2027
Fortaleza punish Vila Nova for switching off
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Rafa Silva will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Vila Nova escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A brace, and Rafa Silva takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rafa Silva provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Tiago Moreira out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vila Nova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Sorriso keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vila Nova may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match17 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Vila Nova's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vila Nova has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Helton Leite in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vila Nova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Vila Nova
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market19 Apr 2027
Vila Nova promote Pedro Porto from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pedro Porto 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.
In brief
- Market Mateus Figueiredo steps up from the Vila Nova academy
- Market Caio Santos steps up from the Vila Nova academy
- Market Roberto Lopes steps up from the Vila Nova academy