Five times in club history, FC Dallas has come back from a two-goal, second-half deficit to win. This victory against Miami is the first of those since August 27, 2011. That makes this 4-3 win a truly epic comeback, minus a small taint for being against a 10-player rotation by Inter Miami.
“Never giving up” is a cliche, but this team sure seems to have it.
“These guys didn’t stop believing. I challenged them at halftime, who are we going to be?
FC Dallas Coach Eric Quill
Mindbogglingly, Los Toros remain unbeaten on the road (3-0-3) in 2025. FCD is 1-3-0 at home. Honestly, this is one of the craziest states of a team I can recall. 3 points at home, 12 points on the road.
It’s also confusing, 3-0-3 on the road is the record of one of the best teams in the league. 1-3-0 at home is the record of one of the worst.
So, is this a good team or not?
Let’s break it down.
Lineups and Tactics
Tactics always matter, but for this game, they rose to be the game-deciding element. Specifically, the switch to the 3-4-3.
Coach Eric Quill started the game in the 4-3-1-2 (the diamond 4). This is the same shape they have been using for a while now. (I want to talk about this shape a bit down below as well.) Lucho Acosta and Sebastien Ibeagha were back in the XI after getting a game off from the starting XI at Minnesota.
In the 58th minute, down 3-1, Coach Quill made the sub that changed the game, bringing on Lalas Abubakar and Pedrinho for Nolan Norris and Show Cafumana, thus – and this is the important bit – swapping to a 3-4-3. A narrow front 3-4-3 like the team used last year.
Finally, in a late game, fresh legs move, Tarik Scott and Bernie Kamungo come on for Logan Farrington and Acosta.
Inter Miami doesn’t draw a shape on their socials, but the consensus on various stat sites seems to be 4-2-3-1. Here’s the one from Google. The broadcast crew said this was a 10-player rotation from their mid-week Champions League Semifinal.
65th minute, Noah Allen replaced Maxi Falcon. 67th minute, Federico Redondo came on for Leonardo Afonso.
And in the 75th minute, Telasco Segovia and Tadeo Allende came on for Yannick Bright and Allen Obando.
Goals
1-0 FC Dallas goal, 8th minute. After a couple of blocked shots, the ball falls to Shaq Moore, who finishes the wide-open shot.
1-1 Inter Miami goal, 16th minute. Ian Fray beats Nolan Norris and Ramiro to the end. When Oz Urhoghide is forced to come out, Fray’s cross is shot by Leo Afonso. Maarten Paes saves the ball twice (it might have been an own goal off Shaq Moore‘s back) before Fafa Picault taps it in.
1-2 Inter Miami goal, 29th minute. FCD seems to have good coverage, but Show Cafumana doesn’t close down Ian Fray. Allen Obando beats Sebastien Ibeagha to the cross and scores.
1-3 Inter Miami goal, 56th minute. From midfield, Benja Cremaschi roasts Shaq Moore, who grabs him. David Martinez cuts through and smashes the loose ball for the goal.
2-3 FC Dallas goal, 65th minute. A cross from Lucho Acosta on a set piece finds Osaze Urhoghide in the box. His header is contested, and the ball falls to him for the shot, with the deflected ball going in. Oz’s taunt of Maxi Falcon gets the team fired up, and the comeback is on. Falcon gets subbed out.
“Yeah, it’s good to add goals to the team and help the team win back the game. Obviously, most of my moments come helping defensively, but to be able to help attacking is just a plus for the team as well. I just want to help the team get to where we want to be.”
Osaze Urhoghide
3-3 FC Dallas goal, 69th minute. A long outlet pass by Pedrinho finds Anderson Julio on the break. Julio brings it down and slots it past the keeper.
4-3 FC Dallas goal, 81st minute. Lucho Acosta to Pedrinho to Logan Farrington, who doesn’t quit and somehow finds a way to play the back back atop the goal area where Pedrinho fires home for the win.
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Osaze Urhoghide. This is getting to be redundant, but he was once again a force in defense. He was often covering up for defensive errors by others, maybe even too much so. His willingness to battle and inability to be intimidated really stood out. His goal and taunt of this marker kicked off the comeback. 77 touches, 83% passing, 3/3 on tackles, 10 clearances, 5 recoveries, and 1 massive goal.
“I know people counted us out before the game, but we showed everyone that we would be able to compete with the best, and we’re not playing around this season.”
Osaze urhoghide
The real key moment of the game game with FCD’s 58th minute subs and the swap to the 3-4-3. For the first 60’ish minutes of the game, the outside Miami backs were killing FCD in the wide spaces made by their narrow shape. It was a bloodbath in the wide spaces. When the shift to the narrow 3-4-3, FCD took control of the wide areas and brought in a vertical component (we’ll talk about why that is missing later) and a playmaker in Pedrinho to help with progression. The shape change worked, solved FCD’s defensive problems wide, and opened up the game vertically. Masterful subs.
“We felt like we weren’t in rhythm again and they had control of the game at 3-1. We weren’t finding solutions that the game needed in our structure. We felt that we needed to get some wingbacks higher up in the game and add some width. We brought Pedrinho in with his feet, composure, and finishing ability. The final product with him and Lucho (Acosta) are pretty special when they are with each other. It is a combination I have been really curious about for a while and the game presented itself, we had nothing to lose, backs against the wall.”
Coach Eric Quill
Pedrinho could have been Man of the Match, and most certainly would have been if he had made that potential extra assist that would have made the score 5-3. In just 33 minutes and 28 touches, he had 3 shot-creating actions, two goal-creating actions, a goal, and an assist. 2/3 on take-ons with 2 progressive passes and 2 progressive carries.
Anderson Julio also had a strong performance, particularly after he went wide and got the freedom to bomb forward.. In addition to the goal, 4 shot-creating actions, 3/5 on take-ons, 4 progressive passes, and 3 carries into the penalty area. Add in 3 intercepts and 3 tackles won.
:Julio going out to wingback, he was outstanding – what a great goal he scored and the defending he did was outstanding.”
Coach Eric Quill
While Logan Farrington only had 1 shot, it was his helping play and off-ball work that again stood out. His grinding is infectious, and his hold-up play was quite strong. No, he’s not smooth and flawless, but he’s a driving factor in the team’s grit. 3-shot creating actions, 1 goal-creating action, 88% passing, 2/2 on challenges, 3 tackles, 1 block, and 5 recoveries.
Camino del Medio
The formation that Coach Quill has been starting games with – the 4-3-1-2 as he calls it, a diamond 4 as we called it – is playing in a lopsided hybrid fashion over the last few games. Let’s look at two different passing charts that will show you what I mean. Lucho Acosta isn’t playing underneath as a 10, he’s playing high like a second striker, and he likes to drift left. Instead, it’s Anderson Julio who spends a lot time coming back into the middle to try and connect. Show Cafumana, who is usually a fairly good connector, is on the left side of the 3-man middle, just above Nolan Norris, the best passing defender.
As you can see in the charts, this means FCD builds heavily left (something Miami was aware of and focused on), which leaves the other side with Shaq Moore having the bulk of the wide field to himself. Combined with Sebestien Ibegha not being a great progresser, Kaick being a 19-year-old kid who is cheating inside to help Ramiro, and Julio coming inside (the greater depth on the left map is probably because of his later wingback play), there’s very little right-side progression. Moore’s connection mostly comes from Ramiro (his 5 progress receptions likely make up the bulk of Ramiro’s 7 progress passes).
Muy Feo
I’m going to go so far as to say Lucho Acosta was quite poor in this one. 65% passing is on the low end for him, and while 3 progressive passes were nice enough, leading to 3 shot-creating actions… he was just 1/3 on take-ons and had 7 miscontralled passes. That’s really sloppy. He looked frustrated, tired, and unmotivated for most of the game with poor body language.
Instant Reaction – 3 Things
