Well, that’s not how we drew it up.

The much anticipated home opener for the Dead Whale Society did not go as we would have hoped — at all. In a 3–1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, NCFC showed some nice things but also showed there’s considerable room for improvement.

Before we go any further, let’s talk about that penalty call in the first half. It was absurd. Even if we call it an actual foul (which was debatable because that flopping rolling nonsense was childish beyond belief), it was clearly outside the box. I watched from home, saw multiple replays, rewound the video a few times, and listened to the commentary. Consensus bad call.

Nevertheless, North Carolina FC had plenty of chances to do more against a structurally questionable Tampa Bay back line. The goal we did score involved several quick first-time balls that the Rowdies had no chance of reacting to, but even before that we hit the post twice and both attempts (especially a Austin Da Luz header) really could have been goals.

Tampa was consistently dangerous on the break all night, but North Carolina held the ball well and had more than 55 percent of the possession. The first Rowdies goal was a fluky finish, strangely hit with the outside of the foot and rolling just out of reach of goalkeeper Alex Tambakis. NCFC had more shots and more shots on target, and also had who I thought was the best player on the pitch: Kyle Bekker.

The Canadian 10 was everywhere, just look at his touches and heat map:

Bekker heatmap via USL.com

Bekker touches via USL.com Reads —>

As you can see, Bekker was given freedom to roam and his influence was felt throughout the match. One of my deepest concerns for this season was how the Dead Whales were going to replace Nazmi Albidawi, but I think we have a wonderful player here in Bekker and I expect him to be one of the USL’s best performers over the course of this season.

The trouble is, Bekker and Co. received very little help from the two strikers. Marios Lomis and Daniel Rios only had three touches in the box combined all night (though one of them was a wonderful assist by Lomis) and consistently had to drop much deeper than you’d like to see from a number 9:

Striker touches via USL.com Reads — →

Things are just as bad when you look at the average position of each of our strikers in their heat maps:

Lomis heatmap via USL.com

Given the fact that we saw 55 percent of the possession, Lomis spending that much time at the center circle and particularly so little time in central forward areas does not make a lot of sense to me. I do not know yet how much of this is by design, but this is something to keep an eye on in future weeks. Rios was not any better:

Rios heatmap via USL.com

Nothing here reflects a central striker or even an attacking player at all. Keep in mind that he came on in the 66th minute with us down a goal, so if anything his map should look more attack minded than usual.

We are going to have to get better forward play at some point. This is only one game, and so I am not worried at all, but a threat up front should help tremendously.

But look, we had eight shots on goal and hit the post twice. That’s 10/14 shots that put pressure on the opposing goal. Over the course of the season, that kind of production will pay off.

We won’t have these fluky penalties every week (we can only assume), and as this backline gets used to playing together, they will get better on the break. After all, this is the first live match this foursome has played together.

We will be fine: I still expect to make the playoffs this season, and we saw a lot of good things. Until next time, #COYDW!