Despite the attempt to treat the home game like a road game (arriving together on a bus in road dress), FC Dallas still put up its typical (this season) home performance against Minnesota United on the 4th. The Burn is now 1-7-2 at home and has gone 7 games without a win. That’s the longest home winless streak in club history.
FCD drops to 12th in the West (21 points), but most of the matchday’s games are still to be played, and RSL could pass them with a win vs St Louis.
“We’re going to go on the road with that mentality we’ve had all year long, and we’re going to pursue victory. I know there’s confidence in who we are on the road, and I wish I had an answer as to why we can’t do it here. I’m searching. I’m searching for the answers, and we are searching, and we’re going to do it. We’re not quitting. We’re never going to quit. The solutions are out there. We’ve got to find them, and we’ve got to execute the solutions.”
FC Dallas Head Coach Eric Quill
Lineups and Tactics
Coach Eric Quill got Ramiro, Kaick, and Sebastien Ibsagha back. Ibeagha was going to be an obvious choice, but I was a bit surprised to see the 19-year-old Kaick be the choice at the 6. Granted, with Sebastian Lletget and Patrickson Delgado flanking him as double-8s, Kaick’s mobility would be a plus.
Ibeagha’s return moved Alvaro to the bench, and Logan Farrington got the start in Anderson Julio‘s place.
59th minute, Quill brought on Ramiro for Kacik, and Pedrinho got Lletget.
89th minute, Sam Sarver makes his MLS debut coming on for Marco Farfan, and Alvaro comes on for Delgado, shifting FCD to 3 at the back.
Minnesota plays a 5-4-1. Yes, seriously.
64th minute, Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Owen Gene come on for Tani Oluwaseyi and Kelvin Yeboah.
81st minute, Jefferson Diaz and Morris Duugan replace Nicolas Romero and Anthony Markanish.
87th minute, Jeong Sang-bin came on for Julian Gressel.
Goals
0-1 Minnesota goal. 35th minute. A free kick from wide left by Julian Gressel finds the completely unmarked and untracked Carlos Harvey at the back post. He’s so wide open he almost messes it up.
0-2 Minnesota goal. 58th minute. A goal off a throw-in by Michael Boxall. Sebastien Ibeagha makes a calamitous leap and misses, the ball is headed to the back post by Tani Oluwaseyi for the easy header for Anthony Markanich (who wasn’t unmarked by Shaq Moore).
1-2 FC Dallas goal. 73rd minute. An absolute banger by Logan Farrington, assisted by Petar Musa of all people after a progressive carry out of midfield.
“It was a great ball by Petar (Musa), I thought I could take it back a little, saw Marco (Farfan) make a run, took the defender with him, opened a little space for me. And then it was something I’ve been working on for a couple weeks now, so it was nice to put into action what I was training.”
Logan Farrington
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Logan Farrington. The goal is a pure class banger. But outside of that, he was active with a great work rate and was one of the few players to play above their 2025 form. His goal seemed to wake up FCD.
Patrickson Delgado recovered from his nightmare in the last game and was relatively positive. 75 touches, 84% passing, 4 shot-creating actions, 7 progressive passes, and 3 progressive carries. Only 1 miscontrol and 0 dispossession. 1/2 on tackles, 1 intercept, 2 clears. No wonder he was pissed off later in the game.
Camino del Medio
Petar Musa was putting in some work helping his team. 5 shot-creating actions and 2 goal-creating actions (the latter is impressive given FCD only scored 1 goal). 3 progressive passes, 3 progressive carries. Added a couple of blocks. He didn’t have his shooting boots on through, just 2, and neither was on target.
By some measures, you might walk away thinking Lucho Acosta had a good game. 85 touches, 10 progressive passes, 3 shot-creating actions… but then just 4/8 for take-ons, 6 miscontrols, 3 dispossession, and just 77% passing overall. That’s not good enough for a player of his salary and skill.
Muy Feo
The mental defensive meltdowns on two set plays are some of the most keystone cops defending we’ve seen in a while. Just brutal mental switch-offs.
“It wasn’t for a lack of practice on the training field and organizations that we’ve been working at. We know that’s what they’re about. They have literally scored a long throw in the last three games I think it is, it’s unacceptable.”
Coach Eric Quill
I questioned Kaick starting over Ramiro when I saw it, and I felt the change should have come at the half. Via Fbref, 15 of Minnesota’s 16 shots came before Ramiro came on for the younger Brazilian. Sure, Minnesota, being up 2-0, was in a defensive stance. And a rangy, hard-tackling 6 can be fun… but being a good 6 is about knowing how to be a 6. It’s more positioning and game reading than anything else.
| Mins | Tch | PrgP | SCA | P1/3 | Tkls | Blks | Int | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaick | 58 | 49 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0/1 | 0 | 1 |
| Ramiro | 32 | 46 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 1/1 | 1 | 0 |
“Sadness. Another home game that we had to change something, and we lost. There is no other feeling than frustration. We have to improve, we have to work, keep our mouths shut and try to win matches. There are no secrets in life in soccer. What we have is the feeling of shame, that is the truth. And we must change, seek strength, I do not know from where and do better to be a man at this moment, take responsibility and try to change the situation.”
Ramiro
The Loons are an even lower possession team than FCD. Neither team wants the ball. FCD had more possession than usual and didn’t know what to do with the ball. They seemed bereft of ideas on how to break down the Minnesota block. When FCD has 35% possession, 14 shots would be great. When you have 53% possession, 14 isn’t so great. And just 5 on target is poor.
“Three home games in a row and getting zero points is not enough. We take accountability and we are very frustrated with ourselves. We must learn from tonight and get ready for next week.”
Maarten Paes
Instant Reaction – 3 Things
Quill out? 21 points in 20 matches is horrid.
Through 20 games
2025: 21 pts
2024: 20 pts (Estevez fired GM 16)
2021: 21 pts (Luchi fired GM 26)
2008: 25 pts (Morrow fired GM 8)
2003: 16 pts (Jeffries fired GM 24)
Quill should be fired. Not ready for the big leagues. In his press conference, he says he just doesn’t understand and is not even thinking about how to change for the upcoming games.I know he is home grown, but like you said, no creativity.