Guangzhou Leopard foreign aid Carlos: I hope the opponent doesn't put all the firepower at me, and I look forward to communicating with Guangzhou fans

Reporter Wang Wei reports After 10 rounds of the Chinese League, Guangdong Guangzhou Leopards ranked 4th in the standings with 6 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, which seems to have not met the team's expectations, but the team's captain and foreign aid goalscorer Joao Carlos, who contributed 7 goals and 6 assists in 10 games, is still bright enough, which is no less than his previous half-way performance in Liaoning Iron Man (8 goals and 2 assists in 15 games).

Since joining Guangzhou Leopards, the Brazilian foreign player has lost 12 pounds, and in addition to helping the team achieve his goals, he hopes to hit the top two scorers in the list. After training on the afternoon of May 24, Carlos showed up at the Westin Guangzhou café as scheduled, and we started with his performance at the start of the season......

◆Football: You scored seven goals and five assists in the first nine rounds of the year (the interview took place before round 10). Do you think this is an incredible statistic, or is it just the right thing you should be? Have you ever had better stats in previous leagues?

Personally, 9 games, 7 goals and 5 assists is a good statistic for the start of the league, I joined Liaoning halfway last year, and now this data has exceeded the overall data after joining Liaoning Ironman last year. This year, I joined the Guangzhou Leopards earlier and trained with the team for a longer period of time. Of course, it's not my all-time best stat, but it's good to get it at the beginning of the league. Everyone has a personal goal, and this season we will see if we have any chances of finishing in the top two of the scorers' charts, and of course, the most important thing is the team's results.

◆For a striker, scoring goals should be his job, so in your mind, is it more important to score seven goals or to have five assists?

I think goals are just as important as assists, because scoring goals gives you more confidence. If memory serves, I've had both goals and assists in 4 games. I'm willing to pass the ball to my team-mates if they're in a better position, and in my eyes the team wins first, so it's just as important to help my team-mates score.

◆You just arrived in the Chinese league last season, scored 8 goals and provided 2 assists in 15 games in the second half, and the overall performance seems to have improved so far this year, what do you think is the main factor contributing to this improvement?

First of all, I arrived at the team at the beginning of winter training, so I learned more about the technical and tactical requirements of the coaching staff and started to run in with my teammates earlier. In addition, my teammates have helped me a lot, including my fellow Brazilians Rosa and Nikon, who have also given me a lot of support, and we have a very good communication and cooperation. In addition, people like Duan Yunzi, Shang Yin, and Deng Biao were my teammates when I was in Liaoning, and they also gave me a lot of help and allowed me to integrate into the team quickly.

◆No matter which opponent you are against, you are a dangerous person that the opponent is focusing on, do you think this will be a problem?

It's obvious that the opponent is marking me in the game, sometimes it's one person, sometimes it's two people, more often it's more than two people to mark me, and I'm used to that, so every training session I focus on doing some preparation for this so that it's easier to get rid of it in the game and find more open shots or passes. In addition, I also communicate with my teammates, and when there are multiple players on the other side who are watching me, I want them to cooperate and plug in more.

I also want to emphasise that the opposition defenders are very aggressive with my feet and marking, and some of the foul referees may not be able to see it, I know it's part of the football game, but being violated a lot in a game and sometimes feeling very uncomfortable. I want the opponent to be more defensive against the attacking players on the field and not to fire at me! (laughs)

◆How many goals do you expect you will score this year? Do you set yourself goals for the season?

I can't predict the number of individual goals this year, my first goal this season is to help the team advance to the top of the league, the second is to strive for the top two scorers in the Chinese League, and even compete for the top scorer in the Chinese League, of course, the more important thing is that the team wins and surpasses. My biggest goal this season is to go ahead with the team.

◆Do you have an eye on the Chinese Super League? What do you think is the difference between the Chinese League and the Super League? How do you think your performance would be if you played in the Super League?

I think there are still some gaps between the Chinese Super League and the Chinese Super League at the technical and tactical level, the Chinese League has more physical confrontation and plays more directly, and the Chinese Super League has higher requirements in terms of technical and tactical level and vision. If I play in the Chinese Super League, I think it will still be good, because the principle of my daily work is the same, no matter what level of league I play, I will train hard to improve myself. No matter what level of the league you are in, I believe that with the help of the coaching staff and teammates, and with my own hard work, I will reap the fruits.

◆Football: Guangzhou Leopards is a promoted polo team, but it has always been ranked in the top three in the standings, with your understanding of the Chinese League, how do you think of the team's real strength and ranking?

Carlos: From the point of view of the promoted horses, I think we did a really good job and I have to give some applause to the club and the team because it is not easy to be in the top few places in the league as a promoted team, but we still have to work hard because the goal of the team is to finish and do our best now and I believe that the team will have a good result at the end of the year.

◆As an effective striker and team captain, what do you think you can do to help the team achieve their goals for the season?

I think we have to pass on our training attitude to everyone, both on and off the field, to give everyone more confidence, because with confidence you can train better and the game will be more quality.

◆Chongqing Tongliang Dragon, Liaoning Iron Man, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu, Guangzhou Leopard and Suzhou Dongwu constitute the first group of Chongchao, in addition to Suzhou Dongwu, Guangzhou Leopard and the other three teams have played against each other, do you think these opponents are difficult to deal with?

I don't think any of these opponents are difficult to deal with. In the game with Liaoning Iron Man, we had a few scoring opportunities at the beginning but did not score, if we scored, it would affect the trend of the game, on the contrary, the opponent seized two chances in the first half, one of which still feels incredible to think about it. As for the match against Chongqing Tonglianglong, I had a chance in the opening game that I didn't grasp well, and my teammates also didn't grasp a ball well, and if I could grasp one, the game situation might be different. Against Shijiazhuang Kung Fu, we didn't do a good job defending from set-pieces, and if we did, the opposition probably wouldn't have had a chance to score. I don't think any of these three opponents are too difficult to play against and we are confident that we can get back in the second half of the year.

◆Which of these four opponents do you think is the most likely to overtake?

These four opponents are difficult to judge, and I hope that Guangzhou Leopard will surpass first and win the championship.

◆What if you have to judge?

I think the performance of this team in Chongqing is good, they have a wave of consecutive wins, and what they showed on the field is very good, they deserve some results, now they are the leaders, and it is not easy to say whether they will fall behind, only to say that they performed well in the previous period, including Liaoning. It's hard to say how the next games will be, because there are still many rounds in the league, and if you don't do well in any link, it is possible to fall behind suddenly.

◆In this competition, where do you think the Guangzhou Leopards are most in need of reinforcement in the summer window?

In the game we scored a lot of goals up front and conceded goals at the back, so if we need to strengthen them, I think we need to strengthen the front, middle and back three positions, so that the overall strength of the team will be strengthened.

◆Football: The three foreign players of Guangzhou Leopards are all Brazilian, how are you getting along now? Did you know each other before?

Carlos: Our foreign players are all Brazilian, which has helped us a lot to integrate into the team and the city. I met Nikon when we were in the Brazilian league, and Rosa and I met after we came to Guangzhou Leopards, and now we get along very well on and off the pitch.

◆Guangzhou is an international food capital, have you tried any Guangzhou food and visited with your family?

I tried a lot of food in Guangzhou, there is hot pot, and there is a very special Shunde porridge bottom hot pot, Cantonese cuisine, barbecue and the like, Guangzhou food is really good, I also hope that foreign tourists come to Guangzhou to try it. Whenever I have time, I take my son to walks in parks, such as Huacheng Square and Pearl River Park. Guangzhou is a very prosperous city, I sometimes put the photos I took in Guangzhou on social platforms, and many friends said that they didn't think Guangzhou was so beautiful, and they all wanted to experience the beauty of Guangzhou in person.

◆Did you know anything about this place before you came to China? How do you feel about living in Shenyang in the north last year and now in Guangzhou?

Before I came to Guangzhou, I heard from my relatives that Guangzhou is a bustling metropolis, because I have relatives who have lived in Guangzhou for a while, and he introduced me to the feelings of living in Guangzhou and encouraged me to come to Guangzhou. I have lived in Shenyang for half a year, and I have a lot of affection for Shenyang, and my family also likes Shenyang.

◆There are a lot of Brazilian players in the Chinese Super League and the Chinese Super League, do you have any familiar and frequent contact with them?

There are a lot of familiar players, and the most contact is the winger Silva of the Qingdao Manatees, and we were teammates when we were at Fluminense in the Brazilian league. Shenhua's Manafa and I have played together in Portugal and have had exchanges.

◆There are a lot of Guangzhou fans who like the way you play, what would you like to say to the Guangzhou fans?

I'm looking forward to talking to the fans in Guangzhou. Guangzhou is a city with a very strong football history, as the captain of the Guangzhou Leopards, I especially hope that the fans can come to the stadium to watch our game, I believe that with your support, we can dedicate more happiness to the fans, we will jointly promote the development of Guangzhou football, and make Guangzhou football better and better!