John Morrissey
Where we left off last year
2024 season: 48 points, 8th in the Eastern Conference
Making the jump up the pyramid to the USL Championship was never going to be easy, but North Carolina managed to look like a rock-solid playoff team for most of 2024. Building from a title-winning final season in USL League One, NCFC retained about a dozen players but added just enough star power to compete in the second tier.
The big surprise? Just how good the holdovers looked. Oalex Anderson scored double-digit goals, Rafa Mentzingen and Louis Perez emerged as elite wide threats, and Mikey Maldonado outfought multiple Championship additions to nail down a starting role in the pivot. That core allowed John Bradford to adopt a feisty, high-flying 5-4-1 that was both stingy and fun to watch.
If nothing else, North Carolina proved that they belong. 2024 was a year for consolidation; 2025 is the next step.
