ESEG futsal team debuts in the NDU with a victory.

The team earned promotion to the new division in this edition.

Last Sunday (September 11th), the ESEG – Faculdade do Grupo Etapa men's futsal team made its debut in the Novo Desporto Universitário (NDU) Championship. The game was the kick-off for this season and the students started the campaign with a 2-1 victory over the FFLCH USP team.

Already familiar to ESEG students, the competition is marked by clashes between teams from higher education institutions and takes place twice a year. In the first semester, the team from Faculdade do Grupo Etapa had an excellent campaign, reaching the semifinals of the competition. However, they were defeated in the final stages and were unable to compete for the title, finishing the edition in 4th place in the overall ranking of division E.

Conversely, due to their strong performance in the last edition, the team achieved promotion to Division D and is now seeking new challenges in a more competitive group. The team has 14 players and new members may arrive in the coming days to strengthen the squad, whose main objective is to fight for the title and move up to the third division.

Regarding the first round, ESEG played a great match, starting by dictating the pace of the game, marking the ball well on the opponent's exits and taking advantage of counter-attacks. Early in the first half, the team opened the scoring and created good opportunities to extend their lead, but without success.

“Despite the close score, we played a great game. We started with a very good pace, marking well and launching quick counter-attacks, but we missed many scoring opportunities. We could have decided the game in the first half, which ended only 1-0 for us,” commented Alison Pires, the team's coach.

In the second half, the team maintained the same intensity and scored their second goal in the very first minute, giving the players more momentum. However, in the final moments of the game, an own goal left the score open for the opponent to equalize. The players managed to defend precisely and, with great effort in marking, secured the victory.

“That goal gave the opponent a boost, who used their goalkeeper as an extra attacker and came back strong looking for the equalizer. But the ESEG team held firm in defense and we managed to hold the 2-1 score, giving the final result to the match,” explains Allan Pires, a member of the team.

Currently, ESEG is in third place in Group B, with three points and a goal difference of one. The team's next match will be on Saturday (September 17th) at 9:50 am against the USP Law team.

Let's go, ESEG team! We're rooting for you!.