After joining Ljungskile in April, defender Sam Brill has departed the Superettan club after his contract expired on September 26th.
Overall, his season in the second Swedish tier was "up and down, an interesting ride and a good experience," Brill recently told Y.A.
One of the main positives included the early portion of the Swedish season in the spring, where he was a regular in the starting lineup an accrued most of his ten appearances, helping the team to several wins.
Brill arrived in the western Swedish club after he played just two matches for fourth tier German club FC Sachsen Leipzig before, as he describes "the club went bankrupt and they weren't taking care of the players."
Brill also met other challenges with the German team due to coming as a relatively unknown player into a team which had already played half of their season as a unit.
"In Germany you were on your own and the team wasn't very welcoming," he explained. "I earned my starting position, quickly [in Leipzig], but the players were not happy to see their friends lose their positions."
As a stark contrast, one fringe benefit of Ljungskile was the comradeship of three other Americans and a couple Englishmen as well. "Its nice to have friends surrounding you," Brill confirmed.
"It feels somewhat like home. We go out for coffee, or watch matches together," said the former Boston College star.
On the down side was the loss of playing time after the replacement of Icelandic coach Gudmundur Magnusson with Jörgen Wålemark. "I came here to get games. I got some games, I would have liked to get more. Coaches changed, a board member stepped in."
"I feel like I got the short end of the stick when the new coach arrived and they stuck with the Allsvenskan players from last year. I had some problems with the new coach," he admitted.
Brill currently has no plans for the immediate future, other than to rest a nagging herniated spinal disk, which "hasn't gotten any better" over the season.
As frustrating as this past season was for for the former New England Rev, the 24-year old is still hopeful to make a productive return to Europe.
"I've made some impressions around here. [The frustration] is just motivation for my next club," he concluded. |
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