Marked for Eskimó
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces29 Nov 2027
Anger at 1º Dezembro spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match27 Nov 2027
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” 1º Dezembro may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Leandro Soares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Juliano 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
The game went through Eskimó — 6.55
Marked 6.55 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad29 Nov 2027
37 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Eskimó
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The mood at 1º Dezembro has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match30 Oct 2027
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Leandro Soares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Oct 2027
Belenenses left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ryan Lima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead1 Nov 2027
1º Dezembro face Amora in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Eskimó 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.
Market1 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gustavo Sousa after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 1º Dezembro can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Both of them Ryan Lima's — 8.36
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.36, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad18 Oct 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Leandro Soares 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juliano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Oct 2027
A 2‑2 draw with Caldas leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gustavo Sousa chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Anjos, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for 1º Dezembro
Position 9 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Match21 Nov 2026
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Leandro Soares 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
The goals have deserted 1º Dezembro
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at 1º Dezembro can tell you which week it ends in.
Match21 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jimi Gower 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Eskimó was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diogo Ferreira, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at 1º Dezembro
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
The knee: Ulisses Dias out for 34 days
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. 1º Dezembro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Eskimó gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Eskimó has just signed for 1º Dezembro, and for once the answer mattered.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for 1º Dezembro
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around 1º Dezembro are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The step up is real for Afonso Lee
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for 1º Dezembro
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Leandro Soares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
1º Dezembro are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Caldas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.