The Vitória Gazette
Player ratings19 Jun 2034
Erick, 36, rolls back the years — 7.83
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Tempers go at Vitória
Matías Mansilla 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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Rhuan Gabriel 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.
Match17 Jun 2034
Vitória see off Oeste
Three points for Vitória, 1‑0 the final word against Oeste in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Jun 2034
Riquelme Felipe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
The manager makes an example of Thierry Henry
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Iñaki Ipharraguerre dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings19 Jun 2034
Nobody could get near Rhuan Gabriel
Successful dribbles: 7. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market19 Jun 2034
Douglas Rangel leaves for nothing
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Douglas Rangel leaves Vitória the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
In brief
- Market Craque leaves for nothing
- Boardroom Vitória keep producing them
- The terraces The press have found their man in Riquelme Felipe