Last season, Brian Sylvestre was North Carolina FC’s starting goalkeeper and MVP. Now, he is plying his trade in the MLS with the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The club will be hoping they’ve found a worthy replacement in Alex Tambakis. Tambakis has had a curious couple of years: He was the first player that Atlanta United ever signed, but he never played for the club. Instead, he was traded to Sporting KC after time on loan at the Charleston Battery.

He is an experienced USL keeper and is excited to join the club. He had the following to say on NCFC’s website:

I’m very excited to join North Carolina FC, a club with a great technical staff, high-level, talented players and a strong fan base. I come with great motivation to put my hard work and background to the service of the team. I will give my all to help the club achieve its goals. NCFC has all the attributes to have a strong presence in the USL and win a championship. I can’t wait to share the exciting moments with my teammates and the fans.

Before his move to the States, Alex was a youth academy product of Panathinaikos in the Greece Super League, and earned a contract with the first team in 2011. He spent five years with the club and was loaned out twice, and he has experience with the Greek National Team at the U-19 Championships in 2011.

During his 2016 and 2017 seasons, Tambakis had 27 USL appearances with 2,430 minutes in league play. He allowed 30 goals and record eight clean sheets.

The club also announced last week that they added a striker from the famous Mexican club Chivas Guadelajara.

Daniel Rios is a youth product of the club and will spend this year on loan with us in the Triangle. He has averaged a goal every 153 minutes over the last two seasons.

Rios looks to compete for minutes at the central striker position, and it remains to be seen exactly what kind of quality we have here. This highlight video, however, is promising:

The NCFC roster is rounding out nicely; just about all that is left is to see them all on the field in a live, regular season game. That will happen for the first time this Saturday, on St. Patrick’s Day against the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

We’ll have more preseason coverage on the site this week as we get ready for the Dead Whales’ 2018 season in USL. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and sign up for our weekly newsletter below.