VŠE Futsal Team at EUG 2024

The European University Games 2024 futsal tournament took place from 8 to 17 July. It is a sporting event held only once every two years and this year’s event was well attended by athletes of different categories. More than 4,500 participants competed in 17 different sports. The futsal team from the Prague University of Economics and Business also participated in this prestigious sporting event, which took place in the Hungarian cities of Debrecen and Miskolc, thanks to their victory in the University Futsal League the previous year.

VŠE futsal team had already participated in many tournaments abroad, but the level of the EUG was far above the experience gained so far in other competitions. The men’s futsal tournament itself was attended by 18 teams and matches were played in three sports halls with a capacity of up to 5,500 spectators. Each match of the tournament was supervised by four delegated referees, some of whom were even licensed by FIFA. Fans could also watch the entire tournament live on YouTube.

Tournament evaluation

We played three matches in the regular group. In the first match we defeated the Norwegian University of Science and Technology from Gothenburg 5:4 with a great performance and especially thanks to Adam Šenkýř’s three goals. After a day off we continued with the second match in the group. In the match against the technically equipped team of University of Reims Champagne Ardenne we lost 4:5. Our third match was for the promotion to the top of the spider. After a 2:1 victory in a slightly nervous match against the home team University of Debrecen, we managed to advance from the first place in the group.

In the quarterfinals of the tournament we faced the Portuguese team University of Maia. The opponent was very good and the match was not very good – the result 2:12 sent us to the fight for the fifth place. Our next match was against University of Lyon. A game full of twists and turns ended 7:7 in the regular season and it was our team that made it through the penalty shootout. In the final game, we finished off a tough tournament schedule with a fifth game on the fifth day. Our team’s opponent for the final fifth place was a team from Azerbaijan Sport Academy. We were a more than evenly matched opponent throughout the game, and it wasn’t until a failed power-play that determined the final score of the game, 4-7.

Evaluation by coach Jiří Kotáb

In the competition of universities that educate professional athletes and coaches, some of the junior and senior representatives of their countries were on their rosters, VŠE team did not do badly at all. At this very prestigious sporting event, we took the final sixth place (out of eighteen starting teams). Although we did not have the best individuals or experienced futsal players (except for the captain Petr Hochman), but mainly through hard work, enthusiasm of all the players and team concept of the game we achieved this nice result, which we must consider as a great success of our team and I have no choice but to thank all the players for the exemplary representation.

On behalf of VŠE futsal team, we would like to thank the Prague University of Economics and Business, the individual faculties and ČAUS for supporting us financially. And thanks to all the opponents, organizers, local hosts and everyone else who participated in the tournament for this unforgettable experience. I hope that the boys from our team will use the experience gained not only in sports!