FC Dallas went to a place they have only won once in their history, Seattle Sounders, rotated a fair bit, tried to clamp the game down, and they gave themselves a shot to steal it. Unfortunately, they didn’t steal it and stayed 11th in the table.
“We gotta find a way to be better in certain moments that we can punish the opponent and better, some decision making, but the effort and the fight was there. Just to lose on that goal, on the penalty it is hard to swallow.”
FC Dallas Coach Eric Quill
Let’s break it down.
Lineups and Tactics
FC Dallas, without Lucho Acosta, went back to the 4-3-1-2 (aka hybrid diamond 4) with Pedrinho taking over the 10 duties. Logan Farrington rotated in for Petar Musa, Patrickson Delgado for Kaick, Marco Farfan for Nolan Norris, and Show Cafumana for Bernard Kaumugo (dropping into MF).
Lalas Abubakar shifted out to RB, and Sebastien Ibeagha came in at CB.
“That’s why you have a team, for weeks like this, where if you’re playing in the Open Cup and playing overtime in 120 minutes and flying across the country for two matches. We had to give opportunity to guys, and that’s what we did tonight, and they deserved the opportunity, they played hard.”
Coach Quill
At halftime, Bernard Kamungo came on for Anderson Julio. That felt like a minute restriction with the heavy schedule.
61st minutes, a triple sub: Kaick, Petar Musa, and Shaq Moore came on for Show Cafumana, Logan Farrington, and Patrickson Delgado. A go-for-it set of subs that changed the shape to more of a 4-4-2. Moore was playing right mid with Abubakar behind him.
74th minute, Tsiki Ntsabeleng on for Marco Farfan. Moore moved to left back, and Ntsabeleng played right mid.
16th minute, due to an injury, Jon Bell replaced Yeimar Andrade.
68th minute, Paul Rothrock came on for Jesus Ferreira, and Georgi Minoungou replaced Pedro de la Vega.
82nd minute, Reed Baker-Whiting and Osaze De Rosario came on for Nouhou Tolo and Ryan Kent.
Goals
1-0 Seattle Sounders goal. Yes, it was handball and a PK. Converted by Albert Rusnak.
Lo Bueno
My choice for FC Dallas Man of the Match was Lalas Abubakar. Asked to play right back, he was quite solid. Sure, he wasn’t perfect, got taken for pace a couple times, but he kept competing, and his shot late almost won the game. (Remember a couple of weeks back when he passed up the shot?) Abubakar has outplayed Ibsagha for multiple games now, he deserves to start.
When a team rotates like this and plays to keep the game in check, you can’t really take too many issues with the play. Of course, it won’t be as good. But FCD did what they set out to do, it almost worked for a point or even a steal if Abubakar’s shot had gone in instead of off the post.
“Feel disappointed for our guys that fought. They fought, and to lose like that is hard to swallow. Proud of their fight, and we’ve got to look at it, and we got to become better for it. Work at the margins that we’re losing on right now and that’s all we can do, is not accept it. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves and blame. We gotta stand up to this, and we gotta understand how the margins work in this league, and where the margins lie.”
Coach Quill
Pedrinho had a very Lucho Acosta-like performance. 6 shot-creating actions, 4 key passes, 4 progressive passes, 4 recoveries, 2/2 on take-ons, 2 progressive carries… but just 0.3 xA to show for it all. 51 touches, 73% passing that high, all isn’t bad. Only 2 miscontrols and 2 dispossessions… not bad kid. Not bad.
This double Maarten Paes save on Jesus Ferreira is a thing of beauty.
Camino del Medio
Believe it or not, FCD has 16 shots in this game. That’s the highest shot total for a game this year! The 5 shots on target were the 2nd highest total behind the amazing Miami performance. Sure, the quality of the scoring chances wasn’t great with an xG of just 1.1, but at least some balls were being put on net. This was just the 2nd time in 6 games they had double-figure shots. 56% of FCD shots came from outside the box; that’s too high.
“We didn’t generate as much as I would like to generate in the front half of the game, but the commitment to defend and hustle and fight was there for me, and just unfortunate, again, an unfortunate break that loses us the game. So we’ve got to find a way. No excuses.”
Coach Quill
FCD did a solid job holding Seattle to a low’ish number of shots with just 12 and 3 on target (according to FBref). Whatever the exact number, all sites report FCD as having more. That’s a start, even if the xG was lower for FCD. Trying to bottle up the other team like this leaves a small margin. FCD pulled it off until the small error gave them a PK. That’s mostly a good performance, but they didn’t quite get it over the line.
“After a long trip and matches against two tough opponents, we thought we played well today. It is unfortunate that we lost due to a penalty kick but we found ways to create danger but we could not finish. Seattle is a tough place to play and we needed to be at the top of our game to get a win but today it did not go our way.”
Anderson Julio
Marco Farfan had a solid return, 1/1 on tackles, 2 intercepts, 6 clears, and 1/2 on dribble challenges. 85% passing is a touch low, but he hasn’t played in 2 months. Just 1 progressive pass though. Norris remains better at the build. It will be interesting to see who holds down this spot.
Muy Feo
According to MLS, FCD has 0 crosses from open play (Fbref agrees). That seems counterintuitive when you have a really good high 9 like Petar Musa and a pretty good movement-based (chaos maker) in Logan Farrington. Both are usually good at getting to stuff in the box. It sure seems like some element of wide play resulting in crosses needs to be in the game plan. Some wings getting to the end? Some overlapping outside backs? Something.
I’ve long held the position that a team needs an identity. Under the current front office, there isn’t one for FCD. I think Coach Quill wants one, but doesn’t have a roster built for it. So we keep seeing lots of formations. I’m a big believer in playing the way you want to play and getting really good at it. SO while I can appreciate the tactical ability to change a shape as they did in this game, and some point this team needs to figure out what it is.
Osaze Urhoghide is a phenomenal player. But I think he needs to trust his teammates a bit more and play within himself. The overreaching we saw on the tape from France keeps popping up more and more. Just reel it back in a touch.