Signing Breakdown: Pedro Dolabella to North Carolina
Why all-league attacker Pedro Dolabella is a major addition for North Carolina FC
Finding a forward that can dominate the 18-yard area while also proving savvy on the ball is difficult. Finding a center mid that knows how to advance without abandoning their defensive duties is equally hard to pull off. A player that can do both at an all-USL caliber? That’s one-of-a-kind.
In that sense, Pedro Dolabella is a unicorn. With 22 goals and 17 assists across all competitions over his last three seasons in Rochester and Omaha, Dolabella has been one of the brightest lights in the third tier for years. Now, he’ll get a chance to prove his mettle in the USL Championship with North Carolina FC.
Last season alone, the 25-year-old contributed to 14 goals in league play. My modeling rated him as the best attacking midfielder in all of USL League One. Again, though, it’s the versatility that makes Dolabella so exceptional. It’s easy for a player to be a Swiss Army knife when half the blades are dull; in Dolabella’s case, he’s sharp no matter where he’s positioned.
A slightly lanky-looking 6’4”, the former Marshall standout is incredibly difficult to shoulder away from the ball. During his two seasons in Omaha, Dolabella also proved to be a potent aerial threat. Six of his 15 goals in League One came from headers; the attacker also scored five non-penalty goals from set pieces in all competitions – and he did so on League One’s second-highest set piece xG total to boot.
The assist numbers are somewhat more modest, but that’s representative of Dolabella’s patient circulation more than a creative deficit. North Carolina’s new star created 16 shots for teammates last year, but he did so while completing fully 74% of his pass attempts in the attacking half. That completion rate is a jump from an already-exceptional 70% clip from 2023, and it evidences that Dolabella knows how to keep the ball moving safely where it matters.
Here, you see the 25-year-old lined up as part of the double pivot in Omaha’s defensive 5-2-3, a shape remarkably similar to the system North Carolina ran throughout 2024. In the example clip, the front line of the defense forces a risky pass toward the inside, and that’s Dolabella’s cue to fly into a tackle attempt.
Dolabella lays claim to the ball and dispossesses the intended receiver. In 2024 as a whole, he won 60% of his tackle attempts and posted a flat 1.0 interceptions per game. It’s a solid defensive record, and you get evidence of it in the video, but the play doesn’t end there. Instead, Dolabella’s strikerly instincts kick in, and he makes a run upfield behind the opposing back line.
While the chipped pass into the box lets Dolabella down, he’s still able to chest and control the pass. Omaha settles into the final third and maintains their control, and it’s all thanks to the star midfielder.
That “start low, push high” sensibility was Dolabella’s primary deployment down the home stretch last season. While Omaha ran a 3-4-3 or 5-2-3 on paper, they’d flex into a 3-1-5-1 in possession with Pedro Dolabella as the beating heart of that new look.
The screenshot above highlights a typical attacking sequence, with Dolabella advancing between the lines. That initial 3-4-3 – a very North Carolinian formation – is rendered into a 3-1-6 with Cary’s newest star at the heart of the offense.
NCFC lacked these exact sorts of runs from the midfield in 2024. Center mids like Collin Martin and Mikey Maldonado were excellent, but they attempted just 28 shots between them; Dolabella posted 55 shots in league play alone.
Of course, there’s a balance to strike. You could easily imagine Dolabella spelling Oalex Anderson as the primary striker, shadowing the half spaces as part of a front three, or even joining Martin and Maldonado in a re-shaped 5-3-2. With a player as special as Dolabella in the mix, options abound.
What if Dolabella plays striker? We know he has the instinct of a poacher, and you see more proof in the reel above.
The first play begins with Dolabella at the center of the high press. While he ranked in the 80th percentile for final third takeaways in 2024, he doesn’t directly force a turnover here. Instead, Dolabella helps to funnel play towards a waiting teammate.
As soon as Omaha is back on the ball, their No. 9 shifts his momentum and identifies a weak spot. Shifting from one channel to another, Dolabella is able to receive and strike home with a smooth finish.
It’s more of the same in the second clip, albeit with the new NCFC man starting as a winger in this case. Rather than hew wide like that positional moniker might imply, Dolabella instead fills the half space in the manner that, say, Louis Perez might’ve done under John Bradford last season.
In this instance, Dolabella begins offscreen in a left-central position but makes a swooping run toward the right. Omaha’s striker drops to hold up play, and Dolabella spots an opportunity to push ahead and potentially receive on a knock-on. That’s exactly what happens, and it results in yet another nice finish.
No matter where he’s playing within a given lineup, Pedro Dolabella has an immense impact on the game. He’s a hyper-intelligent mover, an unselfish passer, and a willing defender on top of the prodigious goal production. While Dolabella could fit in any USL Championship lineup, his match with North Carolina FC is uniquely exciting and changes the game in Cary heading into 2025.