Alemão's determination and vision earned him Man of the Match for our 5th game of the season. He made a significant impact on the game's outcome with relentless endurance pressing the opponent and disrupting their attack. Always with the goal in mind, his passes resulted in several attaching plays including our 2 goals. June 17 2023 game The Villages SC vs Tampa Bay United.
Coffee and questions with Niclas Wittur https://www.thestandardclcl.com/
How is it to be back this year? Any difference from last year?
It's actually great. Last year, it took me 2, maybe 3 games to get settled in. This year I came during the Easter break and it's like coming home in a way. I come to a place where I feel very welcome. There are always new players, but a lot of familiar faces, so it was much easier.
The biggest difference is I didn't know what to expect. Now I feel very confident and happy. I feel like I played a better quality season, so that helps with confidence as well.
You looked somewhat frustrated during earlier games. The one you were selected as Man of the Match, that wasn’t the case. Why do you think that was?
We have great quality in this team so when things are not going as well as I think they should it’s frustrating. Since I played last year I wasn't new anymore and I'm one of the oldest players. In the game against Brevard, for example, I was not happy with the score. We should have scored more if we want to go far, which is obviously our goal. I wanted to make a statement to the league and to other conferences that we can score a lot of goals. That's what made me upset. If I thought we weren’t good, I wouldn't complain. We definitely have what it takes to be much more dangerous if we just finish it a bit better.
I tried to push in a way but later decided to step back and focus on my own game again. That’s what happened at that game. I thought: “I’ll play my game, I’ll do my job, and then the rest will come.” and it did.
Sometimes I don't celebrate as much because for me it's like, “finally we scored a goal.” We haven't won the division yet. After the next game, I'm going to be happy to win the division and have something to celebrate. But I like celebrating when we've done it.
How about those games that we looked like the better team but the result didn’t show it?
Early in the season, we played very good first halves, but the score was only like 1x0 or 0x0. It's not quite enough. Florida Elite came back twice against us. Once we tied and the other time they won which is very frustrating, especially the game when I got injured, I had a big chance to score and I missed it. Then basically being injured after 20 seconds into the second half I think I let the team down because, I couldn’t have done much about the injury, but I missed probably the biggest chance to score another goal for us.
You stayed after your injury. Do you think you might be able to still play this season?
I'm hoping that I'll come back, but being realistic, I think my summer is probably over. Playoffs start next week and I haven't started practicing yet, so my summer playing may be done, but I’m trying to support the team off the field. It was a key decision for me to stay and not go home or back to my university because I like the atmosphere here and our team. My commitment didn't stop because of getting injured. I feel very welcome here and I appreciate that a lot so it’s a way for me to show appreciation as well. I have my goals and goals with the team. Maybe I cannot help this year but I would love to come back next year. Winning the division, we’ll play in the US Open Cup. So I hope that it won't be my last game for The Villages SC.
How do you feel about the team going forward?
Pretty confident, I mean, the playoffs are knockout games, you don't necessarily have to be a better team to win and we should keep that in mind because, in a lot of games, we have been the better team but maybe didn't get the exact result that we wanted. We're going to suffer in some games, but we've shown we can get through tough games. I feel like the mentality of the team is good so we can go pretty far, I'm pretty sure.
