It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Cruzeiro
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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Cruzeiro. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cristiano Neves is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gabriel Costa has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lucas Pacheco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Júnior Peixoto has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Pec. 1‑0 against Santos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Position 2, 55 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fabrício Bruno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gérson is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Matheus Pereira is on it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ismaily is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Lucas Romero has written the date down.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruzeiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rodriguinho 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.
“I watch every Cruzeiro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Internacional runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruzeiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fabrício Bruno is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gérson is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruzeiro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Matheus Pereira 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.
22 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad8 Mar 2027
7 new faces, and Cruzeiro are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Cruzeiro will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cruzeiro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Cruzeiro have no good answer.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Keny Arroyo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I watch every Cruzeiro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Internacional runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cruzeiro, another week without a signature from Alan.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wesley 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Fabrício Bruno 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 2, 55 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Omiya Ardija for Rodriguinho was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gérson is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Wanderson has written the date down.
The offer from FC Tokyo for Keny Arroyo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Sinisterra and Cruzeiro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.
The phone has started ringing about Rodriguinho again, and this time the name on the line is Omiya Ardija. Cruzeiro are listening politely and promising nothing.
7 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Avispa Fukuoka had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Nobody at Cruzeiro will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Lucas Romero has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Rodrigues trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
SquadIsmaily is training like a man with a point to make
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Valenciennes waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cruzeiro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Nobody at Cruzeiro will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kaio Jorge was one of the reasons people came, and $43.5M does not replace that by itself.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.
8 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.
Cruzeiro ran out of time with Internacional. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Cruzeiro have had the benefit of it.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Cruzeiro offered $1.6M; Vasco da Gama said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Cruzeiro have gone to Internacional with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Cruzeiro asked and Bahia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruzeiro can pretend not to have heard.
Sport Recife did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.7M for Lucas Ramon, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
$1.4M on the table at Vasco da Gama. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Cruzeiro asked and Internacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sampaio Correa had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Sport Recife did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.4M for Brenno, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keny Arroyo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cruzeiro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and Cruzeiro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cruzeiro had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Bragantino paid $1.8M and Cruzeiro took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The offer from Palmeiras for Kaio Jorge was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
$12.2M was the most the club would pay and Palmeiras were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cruzeiro have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Cruzeiro have gone to Corinthians with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Kaio Jorge
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Atlético Mineiro next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Fluminense had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say William is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Keny Arroyo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Matheus Pereira 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Keny Arroyo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8.03. 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.
Position 2, 38 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cruzeiro heard it as anything else.
A season average of 7.37 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.
Palmeiras next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Marked 8.25 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Vasco da Gama will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cruzeiro were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.95 beside his name.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Kauã Moraes 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gérson obliged against Vasco da Gama. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Cruzeiro.
Two goals and a mark of 8.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Matheus Pereira 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.50 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Valentín Rodríguez is living that version at Cruzeiro, and it tends to show in the first month.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
Nobody at Cruzeiro will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Corinthians will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cruzeiro were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fabrício Bruno 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Luis Sinisterra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Matheus Pereira 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fernando Fernandes on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cruzeiro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Lucas Romero
SquadA Cruzeiro teenager takes the young player award
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fabrício Bruno 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.
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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Real Madrid had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Keny Arroyo did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $7.2M well is entirely his problem now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Cruzeiro are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Keny Arroyo did not need any: 8.16, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Matheus Pereira 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Keny Arroyo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.41
A mark of 8.41 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.88 beside his name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Add another name to the list: Police Union have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kaique Kenji. The answer from Cruzeiro has not changed — yet.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Bruno Rodrigues at his very best
MatchAfter 4 games, Cruzeiro finally taste it again
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 103th minute. Mirassol will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ruan Índio could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.20
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.20, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kauã Moraes had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Carpi for Ruan Índio was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A brace, and Kaio Jorge takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kaio Jorge provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Matheus Pereira 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Cruzeiro and Bahia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The phone has started ringing about Kauã Moraes again, and this time the name on the line is Urawa Reds. Cruzeiro are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Gérson 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.
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.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Cruzeiro are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.