Eduardo Vieira and Thiago Barros

Sports Journal

Rio de Janeiro Flamengo's campaign in the Metropolitan Futsal Championship isn't going well. The Gávea team suffered two defeats to Vassouras, lost to Piedade, and only managed a draw against Petrópolis' reserve team. The team only won its two matches against Grajaú, but still believes it can turn things around in the final stretch. Coach Cid Escarlate's team doesn't return to the court until two weeks later, on Saturday the 9th, to face Piedade away from home. The duel is the traditional "six-point game," as both teams are tied for third place in the group, behind Vassouras and Piedade, who lead the group. \ Therefore, the team expects the next few days to be spent working on the necessary details to secure a victory in this decisive match against the green and white team from the north zone.\ "It's important to always have this time to train, since we don't train every day of the week anymore. These training sessions will be valuable in the decisive stage, since we won't have much time to train," says top scorer Diego.\ Last season, Flamengo won the state title with great determination and resilience. However, for this year, much of the group ended up leaving, and the squad weakened. Even so, the center assures that the current red-and-black team is also fully capable of doing well. "We can certainly do well this year. In 2008, the team had more unity, and most of the players had been playing together for two years already. In those games against Vassouras and Piedade, the team made a lot of mistakes. They scored the goals from our mistakes. But now we have the ability to improve that with training and get there with the necessary conditions to fight for the title." So far, the red-and-black board still owes three months of last year's salary. The expectation is that, with part of the income earned from the Carioca football championships, another percentage of the debts will be paid off soon.