The Alverca Gazette
Squad14 Sep 2026
12 saves: Matheus Mendes was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Alverca
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Alverca are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Sep 2026
Benfica take the points off Alverca
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Alverca
Nabil Touaizi 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Leonai Souza
“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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Miguel Reis answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Chiquinho was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Alverca
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Paulo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Samy Merheg wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Alverca will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
In brief
- The dugout The plan did not have a place for Leonai Souza
- Looking ahead Diogo Spencer faces his old club
- Market Matheus Mendes linked with a move away