GOLDEN GATE ESTATES, Fla. — The best teams in the National Premier Soccer League are coming to Collier County this weekend. After a stellar regular season, Naples United FC is hosting the NPSL South Regionals on Friday and Saturday.
“This is something we’ve been building for the whole season,” second-year striker Ashton Wittwer said. “I think we’re going to go far this year.”
This is the first time ever that Naples is hosting the regional tournament. The team was founded in 2017. Just six years later, they are the best squad in the NPSL South Region.
Playing on their home turf during the biggest games of the year will allow Naples to have more practice time and less strain on their bodies.
“Now we get the opportunity to showcase our team at home,” Naples United FC Director Enoch Showunmi said.
That home is the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
Naples United FC earned the right to host the South Regionals after they went 9-1 in the regular season. That record was good enough for the club to win its third straight Sunshine Conference championship.
“It’s just the work ethic,” Showunmi said. “I think they [have] camaraderie. The boys have really got on. It’s been a great group.”
The team is made up of players of all ages from all over the world. Some are still in college, while others are trying to work their way up to the professional ranks. They each bring a different background, culture, and language to Southwest Florida, but they all speak the language of soccer.
“Since the first moment I came, I feel like this has been my second home,” Eldi Seiti, a midfielder from Italy, said.
The team has already had an extremely successful season and is seen as one of the favorites to win the NPSL title. However, they know they have to stay focused with their toughest games ahead.
“We have to remember we’re playing the best of the best now,” striker Tariq Bakkali said. “Whoever we come up against is going to be good from now on.”
With that mentality, Naples United FC begins the South Regionals on Friday night, looking to bring a championship back to Southwest Florida.
“It would be great,” Bakkali said. “It would be the first time in history Naples would do it. [It would] put Naples on the map. It would be lovely.”
Naples United FC plays the Southeast Conference champions, Apotheos FC, in the South Region Semifinals on Friday at 8 p.m. Prior to that game, Southern States Soccer Club will take on Brownsville NPSL at 5 p.m. Both of those games will be held at the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.
The winners of those games will then go head to head in the South Region Finals on Saturday at 7 p.m. That game will be held at the Community School of Naples.
The winner of the South Region tournament will advance to the NPSL National Semifinals on July 29.