The 2021 season was far from ideal for North Carolina FC. In its first season in USL League One, the club finished last in the standings with just 25 points and a minus-20 goal differential.
Despite the overall poor results, the team had some positive moments it can build on in 2022, and after a busy offseason, head coach John Bradford is looking to do just that in his second season at the helm.
“I’m a guy that makes 0 excuses for anything that happens and I just try to learn from things,” Bradford said. “And last year, that gave us a lot of opportunities to learn from things.”
Although the team is only a few weeks into its preseason, there is already a noticeable difference from last season. Bradford said in last year’s preseason game against Richmond, the team started nine trialists, something he said was not by design.
“Having a starting group that we know, their strengths, they’ve all been specifically identified, why we wanted to bring them in, why we signed them, how we think they can gel and play together,” Bradford said. “The starting point for us this year has been so far different than it was last year. So we’ve been able to start immediately in terms of how we want to play, what kind of culture we want to imprint. Knowing that these guys are here for the season, it’s been great. It’s been a breath of fresh air for me as a coach, for sure.”
While the roster is far more complete than it was at this point last year, Bradford said the building isn’t done quite yet, with a few more signings still in the works as well as the announcement of which players will be joining on academy contracts, which Bradford has said should be about eight players.
One position Bradford confirmed an unannounced signing in is goalkeeper, saying the deal had been, “kind of finalized yesterday. That’ll come through next week.”
The new keeper will work with 16-year-old Nick Holliday, one of three players the club signed to professional contracts last year after starting the year on academy contracts.
“Obviously, we have Nick Holliday,” Bradford said. “We’re excited about his second season with the club. But, he just turned 16 a couple weeks ago. And we’re hoping that he continues to have opportunities to be in with the youth national team and away from us. So we obviously have to plan to have a starting goalkeeper and a guy who’s ready when he’s not here and that they can work well with him.”
While discussing the goalkeeping signing, Bradford teased the addition of another young player who will be joining the club.
“We’ve got another exciting young player, who we’re going to be signing to a professional contract, who’s also 16 years old,” Bradford said. “That’ll get announced in a little bit and he’s got a great story.”
While Bradford didn’t say who the 16-year-old was, he did add he was not from the NCFC Youth Academy, saying he was the first young player they had identified and brought in from outside.
Bradford said he is in the club’s Homestay Program, where players live with host families in the area.
“He’s a high level player and an exciting player,” Bradford said. “The first thing he did was win the respect of all the older guys. And that’s a tough thing to do when coming in for the first time, especially in a pro environment, because he hasn’t been in a pro environment before. But I think he’ll be an exciting one for us this year.”
Alongside a host of very exciting new signings the club has brought in this offseason, like forward Garrett McLaughlin, who scored an outrageous bicycle kick against NCFC last season, NCFC brought back some very key players from last year’s squad, including Nelson Flores.
Flores was one of the team’s best and most consistent players in 2021, and that success with the club earned him a fair few call ups to the El Salvador national team throughout the offseason.
That success, both overall but specifically in the left back position, has actually attracted other players to the club. Bradford said Haroun Conteh, a left back with experience in the USL Championship playing with Real Monarchs, joined NCFC in part because of the success of Flores.
“But he left that set up and came to us, and is currently with us, he’s going to be one of those Academy players that we signed to an academy contract, and then see how that progresses potentially in a professional contract,” Bradford said. “But in our conversations with him and his family, it was, you know, look at this position, specifically, the left back position and see the growth that a player like Nelson Flores has made. And now [the national team call ups] are the opportunities he’s getting pretty regularly and we hope that continues.”
Much like college coaches touting how many players they have sent to the pros, Bradford says players like Flores show exactly what the club is about. Bradford said the club isn’t just about developing 15-16-year-old players like Holliday, but providing an environment where 20-22-year-old players can thrive as well.
“And the same comment that I make to all these guys is that we don’t necessarily want all these guys here in a couple of years and I think that’s going to be difficult sometimes for our fans and community to understand that,” Bradford said. “But our mission is to help them, and be as successful as we can as a team and individually for them while they’re here, and then the celebration comes when they move on.”
NCFC’s season opener is still just about a month away, but it’s clear this season is shaping up to be far better than 2021.
