North Carolina FC grabs first win of season by topping Birmingham Legion FC

North Carolina FC has been a second half team since it returned to play, again struggling to find the net until the second half in Saturday night’s match against Birmingham Legion FC.

After a scoreless first half for both teams, it was Dre Fortune who found the net in the 51st minute, drilling his shot into the bottom right corner of the goal off an assist from D.J. Taylor.

“[Dre’s] still an important piece in possession and in the final third,” coach Dave Sarachan said. “I give him good grades today, but I wouldn’t give him an A plus and I think he wouldn’t give himself an A plus. That’s okay. It’s still, in my opinion, a little early.”

The score would hold , with NCFC (1-1-1) getting its first win of the season, 1-0 over Birmingham (2-1-1). It was the team’s first game back at WakeMed Soccer Park since the coronavirus pandemic caused the USL to suspend its season in March.

“The fight, determination, competitiveness is there,” Sarachan said. “I still find ourselves slightly rusty overall in our possession, in our first touch, some of the decisions that we make by forcing things. I think that, in time, will get cleaned up.”

“We’ve had a lot of training, but when the game’s come it’s a whole different story,” Sarachan said.

Tensions escalated early in the match, with three cards being shown in the first half. NCFC’s Conor Donovan and Birmingham’s Neco Brett were both given yellows, but it was a red card shown to Birmingham’s Boluwatife Akinyode in the 33rd minute that caused an uproar from both teams.

NCFC midfielder Steven Miller had the ball and a clear field ahead of him when Akinyode cut in front of him to the left, causing him to hit the ground. Akinyode’s left arm did seem to extend and push off Miller, but Birmingham players and coaches were still arguing the call during the hydration break two minutes later. Birmingham played with 10 on the field for the rest of the game.

Fortune and Robert Kristo were also given yellow cards within the final minutes of the game.

“Birmingham’s a good team,” Sarachan said. “They came in with a lot of confidence, and they have some strength and power. We came in with a good, aggressive mindset. Not dirty in any way. The game is physical as it is and I think it was nothing really more than that. Just two teams battling.”

Though NCFC controlled the ball for most of the first half, Birmingham got its chances capitalizing on North Carolina’s mistakes. Anderson Asiedu forced a save by Alex Tambakis in the 16th minute and followed up in the 23rd with a shot that sailed over the crossbar. The Legion also had a handful of chances in the second half.

NCFC defender Sam Brotherton nearly added a second goal, in the 76th minute when he tapped a header from Miller into the bottom left of the goal. It ended up being called offsides.

The game was played without fans and with numerous health and safety protocols in place. Substitute players sat in the stands, and everyone not on the field wore masks. NCFC even used disposable water bottles and Gatorades during hydration breaks.

“It’s certainly a little strange coming to the building with masks, having a shorter time in the building — there’s a lot of things that were very different,” Sarachan said. “But when the whistle blew and the game started, you wouldn’t have known, other than the fact that there’s nobody in the stands of course, which is strange, of course.”

Per USL return-to-play format, NCFC will play each of the other members of Group G — Birmingham, Charlotte Independence and Memphis 901 FC — four times. Teams will play a total of 16 games, with the extra four games being against teams in a similar geographic area. Games that were played before the season was suspended, like NCFC’s 1-0 loss to Louisville City FC on March 7, count toward the 16-game total. The regular season concludes the weekend of Oct. 2 and will be followed by a single-elimination postseason.

NCFC’s next game is at Memphis on Aug. 8 at 8:30 p.m.

This story was originally published August 1, 2020 at 9:46 PM.