“You are what your record says you are.”
Bill Parcells
This club’s imbalance between home and road is off the charts. Four road wins and four road ties, 16 of the club’s 21 points. Just one win at home with 2 ties for 5 points. Twice as many losses at home.
We usually consider a .500 road record a prime indicator of quality, and FCD is blowing that out of the water. And yet stinks up the joint in Frisco. So what does this say about this team?
“Look at our road record compared to last year. I think we’re making real strides in our mentality and our resiliency to come back from disappointment. We are happy with our road form, but we got to get moving at home in front of our fans.”
FC Dallas Coach Eric Quill
Lineups and Tactics
FC Dallas sticks with the hybrid 4 (4-3-1-2), although it’s not exactly the same now as it was a couple of months ago. Since it’s a very fluid shape, I decided to draw it in the defensive game statewhere you get the flat 4-4-2. I think I might write about how it flows later this week.
Coach Eric Quill rolled the dice on Alvaro starting at RCB. I would not have based on what I saw at North Texas SC. Since it worked, full credit to Quill.
With no Ramiro or Kaick, the (base) two central mids were both 8s in Sebastian Lletget and Patrickson Delgado. Pedrinho with the left’ish side. He’ll Quill called Delgado a 10. So it was a 8-10-10 in MF in the offensive state most of the time.
Goals
0-1 Sporting KC goal. 8th minute. Shapi was a banger from the outside, cutting in on his left peg. Marco Farfan initially had him covered, but mystifyingly dropped off.
1-1 FC Dallas goal. 11th minute. An 11-play sequence sees Petar Musa with the finish from the Shaw Moore cross.
“I saw some free space and I took the ball and saw Shaq (Moore) running behind and then passed to him and I attacked the free space. Shaq found me with a very nice pass and I’m very happy help the team with the goal.”
Petar Musa
2-1 FC Dallas goal. 59th minute. Lucho Acosta finishes the PK he earned. I can’t tell you if there was contact.
3-1 FC Dallas goal. 69th minute. Petar Musa works himself free, and his low shot is parried right in the path of Bernie Kamungo.
4-1 FC Dallas goal. 82nd minute. What a ball win and pass by Nolan Norris. Nice clean finish by Lucho Acosta too.
4-2 Sporting KC goal. 90+1 minute. The rookie Alvaro makes a mistake and Santiago Muñoz gets in clean on an assist by Manu García.
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Alvaro. Since he was born in Brazil, we’ll allow the single-name nickname. For a man making his MLS debut and doing it as a starter, this was a smashing performance. This was not the player I’ve seen at North Texas SC. At NTSC, he looked nervy and made mental mistakes. As I said in 3-Things, maybe it’s cause they ask him to lead and organize there, while at FCD he’s just asked to play simple and listen to the vets around him. 59 touches (Paes clearly favored him), 96% passing (he’s a much better passer than Ibby), 2/2 on tackles, 2/2 on challenges won, 2/2 on aerial duels, 2 recoveries, 1 intercept, 7 clearances, 0 errors, 0 dispossessions, 0 miscontrols. Amazing. (He did make a mistake on SKC’s 2nd goal.)
“I thought some of his tackles were timely and well needed. The kid’s got massive personality and leadership. This club needs that and Álvaro is going to help us, so tonight’s the first of many. But to come in on the road and play in a tough place to play and have the composure he had, pretty much throughout the entire night.”
FCD Coach Eric Quill
FC Dallas had just 9 shots (stats by FBRef), that’s low for a team up a man, even on the road. But they managed 4 shots on target and got 4 goals out of it because the quality of the chances was high. With the PK, the xG was 3.8, almost double the best previous high (2.2). Non-Pk xG was 3.1, that still a goal higher than the previous high. For a team that doesn’t possess and doesn’t create a ton, the quality of the creation is key.
Lucho Acosta always has the best numbers on the team in terms of creation, and this game was no exception. 2-goals was his best this year, of course, but so were his 4 goal-creating actions. 91.3% passing was a season high as well. His 7 progressive passes were in his top half, as were the 5 shot-creating actions. 0 times dispossessed tied his season low, although he did have 3 miscontrols. Quality game on his part. He was named to the MLS Team of the Matchday.
The biggest difference in this game for me was the midfield connection, the passing. With no holding mids available (Kaick and Ramiro were out), Quill was forced to use two eights (in reality, it was three based on the way the team flexes). Lletget mostly stayed home as the deep playmaker, with Pedrinho and Delgago getting forward. I thought Delgado, in particular, was excellent.
“Sebastian Lletget had to play the 6 tonight. We had two number 10s in the 8 position. We had a great attacking lineup out there tonight, but I thought they defended well, which maybe isn’t a forte for some of them, but you wouldn’t know it tonight. Patrickson Delgado is playing some high-level football for us right now, and where he was a month ago compared to where he is now is night and day.”
FCD Coach Eric Quill
| Touches | Passing | Prog Passes | Prog Car | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sebastian Lletget | 51 | 94% | 5 | 0 |
| Patrickson Delgado | 48 | 90% | 6 | 2 |
| Pedrinho | 35 | 87% | 2 | 1 |
“Yeah, playing in this position was a little bit different. I usually play a little bit more forward, but I really enjoyed it. I have good players around me and well, things worked out. I was involved in the first goal and the team helped me a lot. So, it’s a great team effort again and well, give it the most important thing that we win.”
Sebastian Lletget
The red card takes some of the value of analyzing this game. But nonetheless, it’s important to close out games on the road even up a man. FCD took care of business and took advantage of the moments then they came.
Cool to see Josh Torquato get signed to a short-term deal and get into the game. He’s been very steady and reliable with North Texas SC this season. One of their best and most reliable players game in and game out.
Marco Farfan played his 100th MLS regular-season game for FC Dallas in this one. Big milestone.
Camino del Medio
Nolan Norris‘ pass to set up Acosta for the 4th goal was sublime and of serious quality. However, he had a couple of other hopeful long balls trying to release attackers that were off the mark of his usual quality. Plus, in those moments with the score as it was, a more conservative play was in order.
Leo Chu got healthy enough to make the bench but didn’t get in. He last played on April 12th and has a grand total of 212 minutes played this season.
Muy Feo
While I like the attitude post-game from Quill, keep in mind this team’s 5 wins are against 11th in the West Houston (pre-DPs), 13th in the West Sporting (twice), 12th in the West RSL, and 6th in the East Miami (in the middle of their tail-spin). Yes, beat who you are supposed to be. But their record does indeed show you who they are… to this point.