FC Dallas took care of business in their first US Open Cup game of 2025 with a 3-1 win over AV Alta FC.
With AV Alta being a USL-1 team, FC Dallas couldn’t afford a heavy rotation and needed to take this game seriously. Full credit for doing exactly that.
“It’s five finals. Five finals ahead of them, four now and they’ve got to play everyone like it’s a final, like this (tonight). It’s not like league play where you get to make mistakes and you’ve got a game the next week. You get punished in this format. If you lose, you’re out. So you have to heighten the concentration, mentality, and effort. You can’t take plays off. That’s the tournament format and I love this format because of that nature, because of the pressure. They’ve got four finals left, that’s how I describe it”
FCD Coach Eric Quill
With the win, FC Dallas advances to face New York Red Bulls on May 21st, at 6:30 pm CT in Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey. Paramount+ & CBS Sports Network.
Let’s break it down.
Lineups and Tactics
Some light rotation was expected, although it’s hard to predict what it might be going in.
Sebastien Ibeagha was sick, so Lalas Abubakar was in for him. Bernie Kamungo and rotated in for Anderson Julio, and Michael Collodi rotated in for Maarten Paes.
Nolan Norris was back into the XI as Coach Quill, unsurprisingly, dumped the 3-4-3 after the Great San Diego Disaster of 2025 in favor of the 4-3-1-2
At halftime, Quill took off Shaq Moore, who needs some time off, and brought on Show Cafumana and shifted Ramiro to right back and Kaick to the 6.
62nd minute, Pedrinho for Lucho Acosta. This felt like a pre-planned sub.
75th minute, Diego Garcia for Tsiki Ntsabeleng. An FCD debut for Garcia.
AV Alta FC played a 4-3-3.
Goals
1-0 FC Dallas goal. 3rd minute. A lovely team goal. Ramiro to Logan Farrington, to Shaq Moore, with a nice cross to Lucho Acosta for the goal.
1-1 AV Alta goal. 16th minute. Osvaldo Lay catches Michael Collodi out and lobs him from about 60 yards. Goodness.
2-1 FC Dallas goal. 43rd minute. Fantastic team goal with Lucho Acosta doing a lot of the… heavy lifting. (smirks). Good composure and finish by Kaick.
3-1 FC Dallas goal. 71st minute. A prototypical goal for the current FCD. On the break, great cross by Show Cafumana, clean finish by Bernie Kamungo.
Lo Bueno
Kaick was my FC Dallas Man of the Match in this one. In part for the game-winning goal on one of his chaotic runs forward, but also for this play in the 2nd half as the holding 6. He has so much range it’s disgusting. In the long run, I’m sure the idea is for him to be the primary 6 in whatever shape Quill ends up with as he gets players healthy. I really like getting him half the game in that spot since he needs to play it against RSL this weekend.
I love how quickly the ball was moving with Lucho Acosta in the final third, even without Petar Musa. Opposition is a factor, but given the last three games, the crispness, life, and sharpness of the passing were really positive. Everyone is getting on the same page. It was particularly clear and obvious on the first goal just 3 minutes into the game.
It was great to see Bernie Kamungo play fairly well and get a goal. He has a lot of work to do on his complete game at the MLS level, but when he can run at guys all night, they wear out and he gets goals like this. Dude does have a great work rate.
“I’ve had a lot of personal growth in these last couple months, Coach Quill has helped me a lot as well as my teammates. I’m always up for a challenge and just be able to challenge my teammates and help the team, that’s always the goal. I’m always excited, today I scored, and hopefully I can just keep going from here.”
FCD’s Bernard Kamungo
I love that Diego Garcia got to make his debut and get some minutes. The kid is still 18 and has a long career ahead; no need to go crazy cramming him in. He (and fans) should be patient as Quill works him in. With two more 8s coming back this month (Paxton Pomykal and Sebastian Lletget), Garcia won’t get massive PT, but we should see him getting a smattering here and there.
“The kid is growing in front of our eyes and in all the right ways. This was his night to get his debut, and he’s gonna have plenty more (opportunities) coming down the road…. …There were a few nerves, right? There were a couple little giveaways that, for a young guy getting his debut, is natural. But with Diego, if you look at what his response was to his turnovers, nobody gets behind the ball harder and faster than he does, so that’s his response. His mentality is top level, and that’s why I don’t worry about his mistakes, because of the warriorhood getting behind it.”
FCD Coach Eric Quill
Camino del Medio
Interestingly, we didn’t get to see a single North Texas SC player in the mix, who need a short-term deal to join the roster. Not only that, we didn’t even get to see any of the off-roster Homegrowns like Daniel Baran, Malachi Molina, or Ale Aurzua, who can be added any time. Another sign that Coach Quill is taking this Cup very seriously?
I’m not always a big fan of rotating keepers. The ability of a keeper to stay fresh and ready is, for me, more about training than games, where they get limited touches. I might be tempted to think there is value of getting a rep in front of a big crowd, but the Open Cup ain’t that. With Maarten Paes having more callups in June, I get the idea of keeping Michael Collodi active. And he was 90% great, his feet are outstanding, but getting caught on that goal too high might have been a killer against a better team.
According to the box score on Google, AVA outshot FCD 11 to 5. Which just goes to show the value of quality scoring chances rather than just blasting shots from anywhere.
We now have the answer to the backup right back question: Ramiro. I really like that Kaick got at least half the game at the 6, although I would have preferred the whole game. This combo should have been tried in training enough to know if it was the answer or not. No reason it couldn’t have been used the whole game.
Muy Feo
MLS hates the Open Cup so much, they don’t even do stats for it. Or accurate stats, I should probably say. How petty can you get?
Our old friend Carlos Avilez got done dirty getting dropped against his hometown team. Denzil Smith had only started one game prior to this Cup matchup. Did they not have faith that Avilez would give a top performance against his old team? Feels odd.