Marked for Rodrigo Ramírez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Barra
Franco Flores 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Matheus Fogo 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Match21 Nov 2026
São José left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The form table has caught Luís Cetin
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Shots: 5, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Jackson Caucaia
Nobody at Barra is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Barra
Santiago Maidana 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Alves Silva, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Barra, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The form table has caught Luís Cetin
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Matheus Fogo
Nobody at Barra is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Market26 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rodrigo Ramírez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Barra would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Barra
Matheus Fogo 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Ramírez did the work nobody counts — 6.75
9 combined actions and 6.75. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Fábio Szymonek knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fábio Szymonek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Édgo is off the mark for Barra
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rodrigo Ramírez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Barra
Santiago Maidana 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Barra and Brasil de Pelotas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match19 Sep 2026
2‑4 to Brasil de Pelotas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Barra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Fogo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Barra are still strangers to each other
20 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad21 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Luís Cetin knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Luís Cetin's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market21 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over São Luiz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
No place for Araujo in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Barra are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.39 on the card, and the Barra support went home talking about one name.
Market14 Sep 2026
Barra buy the years ahead of Araujo
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market14 Sep 2026
Santiago Guzmán is 17, and Barra have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Thiago Neves, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Barra take on the side everybody is chasing
Brasil de Pelotas arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Barra
Santiago Maidana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Mário Lúcio gets it from the manager
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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. Barra will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.