The Breakdown – FC Dallas at Real Salt Lake, March 2025

FC Dallas pulled out another road win at Real Salt Lake in Sandy, Utah, on Saturday night. That road win makes Dallas 2-0-1 on the road this year with 7 points, which ties last season’s road points (7 pts, 1-10-6) in just three games. Amazing.

“I’m proud of the performance of everyone. That’s two wins and a tie in three games on the road and that’s showing signs of warrior type mentality and now we have to take care of business at home.”

FC Dallas Head Coach Eric Quill

On the other hand, the early red card changes the game and the tactics. Of course, everything smells like roses this morning. Plus, Salt Lake was missing Diego Luna, one of the most interesting players in MLS.

Let’s break it down.

Lineups and Tactics

It was kind of cool to see FCD use the tactics that I suggested in my game preview, although Quill used a couple of different choices than I did in personnel. Patrickson Delgado came in as the extra 8 (instead of my suggestion Show Cafumana) and Leo Chu got the start over Logan Farrington.

At halftime, Tsiki Ntsabeleng replaced Patrickson Delgado because of the head injury.

Then in the 66th minute, Logan Farrington came on for Leo Chu in a like-for-like.

Finally, protecting the lead, Quill went 5 at the back with Lalas Abubakar replacing Sebastian Lletget.

Real Salt Lake in a 4-2-3-1 without their talisman Diego Luna.

At halftime, Tyler Wolff replaced Pablo Ruiz.

At 66′, Alex Katranis came on for Sam Junqua and Lachlan Brook was on for Nelson Palacio.

Finally, in the 81st minute, Kobi Henry came on for Forster Ajago which seemed to trigger a barrage from RSL.

Goals

1-0 FC Dallas goal. 45+7th minute. Cross with the left foot by Shaq Moore gets deflected but turns into the perfect looper to find 5’3″ Lucho Acosta who has put himself in a great position inside 6’6″ Philip Quinton. A small box out and a clean header delivers the goal.

“After not converting the penalty, I was a little frustrated and wanted to score a goal to get motivated. I saw the space behind where Shaq was going to cross, and thankfully, I scored on a rebound header.”

Lucho Acosta

Lo Bueno

My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Sebastian Lletget. This was the Lletget of last season. I loved seeing him get forward like an 8 and spring up in the box. This change in play is something the team needed badly. 48 touches (I would still like to see more through the middle) and 3 shot-creating actions, 5 progressive passes, 1 progressive carry, 0 times dispossessed, 3 progressive receptions,

I loved the change in tactics to the diamond 4-3-3 (or 4-3-1-2 as Quill called it). Getting an extra man into midfield was so necessary. Check out the clean shape below. Ramiro keyed off being the stay-at-home helping stifle RSL, and Lletget excelled being a real 8. Delgado was looking positive. FCD had plenty getting forward, and it shifted into a nice and straight 4-3-3 block defensively. This is a shape that could really fit this team going forward.

And yes, this shape can continue with Anderson Julio when he comes back.

Fantastic showing my Michael Collodi. I was very confident he would perform as he’s mentally tough and a fantastic leader. He was the MOTM for a lot of people, including Coach Quill. I didn’t pick him because in the end he only had 2 or 3 saves – depending on which stat service you look at – all coming late in the game. But his confidence and organization were top notch and his feet were terrific. (The quality of his feet underlines Paes’ weakness there.)

“[Michael] Collodi, for me, what a game. With his feet, shot stopping, dealing with crosses, I thought the kid was outstanding. He was my man of the match so I’m proud of him. It’s not easy to come into a hostile environment and put on a performance like he did. Credit to him and he’s got a big future.”

Coach Eric Quill

I quite liked Ramiro in the stay-at-home 6. Yes, his range and movement are still limited, but when he plays within the shape, he’s much better. 66 touches, 88% passing, 5 progressive, 1 progressive carry (yes that’s an improvement), 4/5 on tackles, 2 intercepts, 7 balls into the final third, 0 dispossessions, and 7 recoveries. The only thing I don’t like is just 2 progressive receptions, so he’s still not providing much build-outlet… but maybe that is ok as Quill’s teams get forward fast and don’t build a lot through the middle.

Oz Urhoghide was terrific as usual. What an amazing signing he has turned out to be. The couple of chase-downs he made really stood out. It’s not super obvious in his stats but he was clamping down hard and physically controlling play. Perhaps we can best demonstrate it by looking at RSL’s 9, Foster Aiago, who had just 11 touches – most of them well away from the danger area – and 0 shots in 80 minutes.

Look, we could pick Lucho Acosta for Man of the Match pretty much every game, this one included. Looking at the sheet, maybe we should have. 1 goal, 78 touches, 9 shot-creating actions, 5 progressive carries, 11 progressive passes, and 10 progressive receptions. This is what it’s like when you have a league MVP-level player. We shouldn’t take him for granted. Although the missed PK wasn’t great.

Puppies. Puppies rule.

Camino del Medio

Get used to an FCD lack of possession. In the cold light of dawn, MLS has adjusted the possession stat by a massive amount. It now shows FC Dallas with a 51% advantage. My point 3 down in the Instant Reaction still holds as they were basically even in possession while up a man. The point I was making is that a lot of teams in the modern game don’t care at all about possession. Possession itself isn’t the key; chance creation is.

Shame about the head injury to Patrickson Delgado. If he had played 90 I think we would be talking about how good a game he had. His first half was solid and much better than his last meltdown appearance versus Chicago. There are still flaws, but his size, power, and range stand out even when I think his feet are just ok and the decision-making still needs work.

Muy Feo

Granted, this is a nitpick cause he continues to play great, but one negative of this shape was Petar Musa’s positioning being out a touch wider than I would have liked (see above team shape). Defensively, he would line up at the left forward, so his attacking play often started wide left, which is probably something they have to live with, but I would like to see him push more centrally with a greater frequency.

The shots-on-goal to shots ratio in this one for FCD was 15 to 5. That’s just 1/3 on target. As usual, I would prefer it to be near 50%. Force a few more saves.

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