“I’m proud of the team’s performance. Of course, I want to win, but I’m proud of the team tonight. But I thought that if you’re looking at a collective team, that was our team out there playing, I was proud.”
FC Dallas Head Coach Eric Quill
A point against LAFC with FCD missing pieces18 isn’t the worst outcome, but this team needs wins; getting ties isn’t going to get them into the playoffs.
FCD remains in 11th place on 30 points, 5 back of 9th-place Austin FC.
Lineups and Tactics
Coach Eric Quill remains locked in on the 3-4-3, and he continues to mislead not only his own socials with the lineup but also the network.
Petar Musa wasn’t on the injury list but was held out as a precaution, so Logan Farrington took on the greater 9 role.
Osaze Urhoghide had some hamstring tightness earlier in the day and was pulled. That caused a complete back line reshuffle, including Ramiro to right wing back and Kaick into midfield.
Patrickson Delgado reclaimed the starting spot from Sebastian Lletget. There was a lot of interplay by Delgado and Anderson Julio, so feel free to swap them in the image if you like.
69th minute, Alvaro came on for Ramiro. Shifting Moore to RWB.
73rd minute, Looking for offense, Lletget came on for Christian Cappis and Sam Sarver replaced Anderson Julio.
82nd minute, Peta Musa replaced Logan Farrington.
LAFC in a 4-3-3 drawn upside down in their graphic.
25th minute, an injury sub as Mathieu Choiniere replaced Igor.
63rd minute, David Martinez came on for Nathan Ordaz.
79th minute, Artem Smoliakov, Frankie Amaya, and Ryan Porteous replaced Ryan Hollingshead, Eddie Segura, and Marky Delgado.
Goals
0-1 LAFC goal, 6th minute. A garbage foul call on Christian Cappis gives Son Heung-min a free kick in a dangerous spot. This is a damn near unsavable shot. I’m not sure there are many keepers, if any, who could have gotten to it.
1-1 FC Dallas goal, 25th minute. Great recovery by Patrickson Delgado, who feeds Logan Farrington. Farrington’s quick shot is deflected past the keeper by Nkosi Tafari.
“It was a good pass by Patrickson [Delgado] off of a long ball, and I just had a little bit of space. I was like, I have to get a shot on target. I got a little bit of luck but that’s what strikers need sometimes, so I’ll take it.”
Logan Farrington
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Michael Collodi. He was also named to MLS Team of the Matchday. Career high 4 saves (Fbref has him on 5 saves) on a 2.4 xG. He was fantastic all day, great feet, good positioning, quick hands, but it was this save at the end that clinched the MOTM for me.
Patrickson Delgado was my MOTM up until Collodi made that save because we got good Delgago again. If he could eliminate the every 3 to 4 game stinker performance, FCD could really have something. 43 touches, 76% passing, 5 shot-creating actions, the loan assist, 3 progressive passes, 1/1 on take-ons, 0 miscontrols, 0 dispossessions, and 3 recoveries.
Christian Cappis keeps improving each game. He’s out playing what Show Cafumana was bringing last year already. 34 touches, 90% passing, 3 progressive, 1 progressive carry, 1/1 on take-ons, and 5 passes into the final third. 2/2 on tackles, 2/3 on challenges, 3 blocks, 4 recoveries, just 1 miscontrol, and 0 dispossessions.
There was a lot of panic defending at times, but overall, the collective defense held up without Oz. Shaq Moore had perhaps his best defensive game of the year (3/4 on tackles, 3/3 on challenges, 1 block, 7 clearences, 3 recoveries, and 2/3 on aerial duels. Lalas Abubakar made a few last-ditch saves with 5 blocks and 5 clears. Sebestian Ibeagha was 1/3 tackles, 2/2 challenges, 2 blocks, and 4 clearances.
“It wasn’t easy to not have [Urhoghide] in the game tonight, but I thought the group stepped up. Shaq [Moore] being asked to play right center back, I thought he did a beautiful job. He hasn’t had a lot of time there, but I thought he did outstanding. For guys to be sort of shuffled that last minute and not really being able to work on the training field with it, I thought these guys did great. They didn’t miss a beat. So I’m really pleased that they have the ability to adapt and play at such a high level.”
Coach Erix Quill
Logan Farrington‘s goal gives him five on the season, a new career single-season high.
Camino del Medio
FCD broke their tendency of playing heavily left by playing right in this one, which is quite interesting cause usually the keepers will all but ignore the right side in build out.
“Really I just want to help the team, I played a different position tonight, but I can adapt well to any position, whether that’s higher up or down the field. That’s one of the values I bring to my team and I’m happy I was able to help the team get a point against a good team.”
Shaq Moore
Muy Feo
The way FC Dallas and Coach Quill mislead the league’s broadcast partner and their own socials is stupid. It’s a disservice to their fans. Imagine your local NBA or NFL game watching listing players completely out of position and completely different tactics. They would get destroyed. FCD showed a 4-3-3, which is just ridiculous, and the network had statements like “oh, we were told Delgado would be the right wingback.” Delgado at wingback? That’s like Troy Aikman playing left guard. Frankly, it’s embarrassingly bad and makes them all look like clowns.
FCD getting just 10 shots at home isn’t good. Yes, they are a low-possession team currently, but that’s too low. And just 2 of them on target compounds the issue. None of that is good enough to win.
Eric Quill’s offensive subs didn’t work. Alvaro Moinvg Moore wide; Lletget and Sarver on. FC Dallas had just 1 shot after the 60th minute, and that was by Ibeagha on a header on a set play after Sarver got fouled. You can see this failure in this game flow graphic.
“Like I said, I thought when we were the aggressors in the first half, in the second half, I thought we fizzled physically. Their quality with their fronts are going to chew your legs away just because of the nature of the profile that they serve.”
Coach Eric Quill