I’m working really hard, here, not to overreact or panic after two games for North Carolina FC. I want to focus on the positives, but that’s not necessarily easy to do. I really hope the Dead Whales bounce back and beat Indy this week and Matthews next week to balance out the start to the season, but the trends of the season so far offer mixed indicators as to whether that will happen.

So, here are a few trends from the season to date:

The Dead Whales dominate possession

The NCFC midfield is really good on the ball. Over 55% of possession in Richmond made for the second game running the team had a significant majority of the ball over the course of the game. As the back line gets comfortable together and the front line finds itself, this should start paying dividends.

The positioning of strikers makes no sense

We’ve already discussed the striker positioning issues from the first game in this article.

That problem seems to be repeating itself.

Sure, Lomis got an assist in the first game and Rios scored in the second one, but NCFC’s forwards are just not active enough in the box. Here is where Rios spent his time on Saturday:

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Lomis’ map actually looked more like a normal striker this week, but he played so few minutes that it is hard to take anything from that.

I will say that Rios looked far more like an attacking player positionally than either of our strikers in the Rowdies game, but he is still spending a lot of his time wide and towards midfield, and I just do not think that is very offensively efficient.

NCFC strikers had just three touches in the box against the Rowdies, and they had six against Richmond. That’s an improvement, to be sure, but two of those six touches were in wide enough areas in the box that they really were not huge scoring threats. This is something the team has to continue to improve.

Penalties

For pete’s sake, garbage penalties two games in a row. The one against the Kickers wasn’t as bad as the play that wasn’t even in the box against the Rowdies, but USL really needs to show us fans that they are even remotely competent in dealing with defensive actions in the final third.

These kinds of nonsense calls just encourage forwards to dive at the slightest provocation, and that’s not good for the game.

Conclusion

Even with no points so far in USL play, I think NCFC will be okay. A home game against one of the best teams in the division, a canceled road game, then another game on the road is not an ideal scheduling start to anyone’s season. There is plenty of time to get the season back on track and headed in the right direction.

I think that getting the strikers to spend more time in central attacking areas will help the team turn all this possession into more goals, and I think the five goals conceded in two matches has been very misleading given the two bogus penalties called against us.

Hang in there NCFC fans: We’ll make something of this yet.