diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index fbbf409..1478f7d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -54,6 +54,13 @@ This project uses famous football stadiums (A-Z) that hosted FIFA World Cup matc
 
 ### Changed
 
+- Switch runtime base image from `mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0` (Debian)
+  to `mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0-alpine` (before: 113.4 MB →
+  after: 73.9 MB compressed; measured via `docker manifest inspect` and
+  `docker save | wc -c`); replace `apt-get` with `apk` and
+  `useradd`/`groupadd` with `adduser`/`addgroup` accordingly (#456)
+- Refactor `scripts/entrypoint.sh`: add `log()` helper with timestamp prefix,
+  replace raw `echo` calls, and print API base URL on startup (#456)
 - Rename `ValidateAsync_SquadNumber_BelongsToPlayerBeingUpdated_ReturnsNoErrors` to `ValidateAsync_SquadNumberBelongsToPlayerBeingUpdated_ReturnsNoErrors` to align with the 3-segment naming convention for service/validator tests (#427)
 - Make CSharpier step in `/pre-commit` conditional (skip with a note if not installed), consistent with the Docker and CodeRabbit steps (#427)
 - Add "Verify tag commit is reachable from master" step to CD workflow using `git merge-base --is-ancestor` before any build or publish steps (#439)
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 2ede89c..2560490 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -22,13 +22,12 @@ RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o /app/publish
 # Stage 2: Runtime
 # This stage creates the final, minimal image to run the application.
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0 AS runtime
+FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:10.0-alpine AS runtime
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
 # Install curl for health check
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends curl && \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+RUN apk add --no-cache curl
 
 # Metadata labels for the image. These are useful for registries and inspection.
 LABEL org.opencontainers.image.title="🧪 Web API made with .NET 10 (LTS) and ASP.NET Core"
@@ -39,6 +38,9 @@ LABEL org.opencontainers.image.source="https://github.com/nanotaboada/Dotnet.Sam
 # Set environment variables
 ENV ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://+:9000
 ENV ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production
+# Alpine images default to invariant globalization mode. Explicitly opt in since
+# this API uses ISO-8601 dates and ASCII data — ICU is not required.
+ENV DOTNET_SYSTEM_GLOBALIZATION_INVARIANT=true
 
 # Copy published app from builder
 COPY --from=builder     /app/publish/               .
@@ -57,7 +59,8 @@ COPY --chmod=555        scripts/healthcheck.sh      ./healthcheck.sh
 COPY --from=builder /src/Dotnet.Samples.AspNetCore.WebApi/storage/players-sqlite3.db ./hold/players-sqlite3.db
 
 # Add non-root user and make volume mount point writable
-RUN groupadd -r aspnetcore && useradd -r -g aspnetcore aspnetcore && \
+RUN addgroup -S aspnetcore && \
+    adduser -S -G aspnetcore aspnetcore && \
     mkdir -p /storage && \
     chown aspnetcore:aspnetcore /storage
 
diff --git a/scripts/entrypoint.sh b/scripts/entrypoint.sh
index 2642076..a1158cf 100644
--- a/scripts/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/scripts/entrypoint.sh
@@ -1,25 +1,37 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 set -e
 
+# Helper function for formatted logging
+log() {
+    local message="$1"
+    echo "[ENTRYPOINT] $(date '+%Y/%m/%d - %H:%M:%S') | $message"
+    return 0
+}
+
 IMAGE_STORAGE_PATH="/app/hold/players-sqlite3.db"
 VOLUME_STORAGE_PATH="/storage/players-sqlite3.db"
 
-echo "✔ Starting container..."
+log "✔ Starting container..."
 
 if [ ! -f "$VOLUME_STORAGE_PATH" ]; then
-    echo "⚠️ No existing database file found in volume."
+    log "⚠️ No existing database file found in volume."
     if [ -f "$IMAGE_STORAGE_PATH" ]; then
-        echo "🔄 Copying database file to writable volume..."
+        log "🔄 Copying database file to writable volume..."
         cp "$IMAGE_STORAGE_PATH" "$VOLUME_STORAGE_PATH"
-        echo "✔ Database initialized at $VOLUME_STORAGE_PATH"
+        log "✔ Database initialized at $VOLUME_STORAGE_PATH"
     else
-        echo "⚠️ Database file missing at $IMAGE_STORAGE_PATH"
+        log "⚠️ Database file missing at $IMAGE_STORAGE_PATH"
         exit 1
     fi
 else
-    echo "✔ Existing database file found. Skipping seed copy."
+    log "✔ Existing database file found. Skipping seed copy."
 fi
 
-echo "✔ Ready!"
-echo "🚀 Launching app..."
+log "✔ Ready!"
+log "🚀 Launching app..."
+# Derive the API URL from ASPNETCORE_URLS (first entry if semicolon-separated),
+# replacing the wildcard host (+, 0.0.0.0) with localhost for display purposes.
+_raw_url=$(printf '%s' "${ASPNETCORE_URLS:-http://+:9000}" | cut -d';' -f1)
+API_URL=$(printf '%s' "$_raw_url" | sed 's|+|localhost|g; s|0\.0\.0\.0|localhost|g')
+log "🔌 API endpoints | $API_URL"
 exec "$@"