FC Dallas nabbed its first home win of 2025 on Saturday night, knocking off last-place Sporting KC. With the win, the Burn climb to 7th in the West.
“From day one, head coach (Eric) Quill has came in and tried to change the culture. We need to be mentality monsters.”
Nolan Norris
And FCD got Peter Vermes fired… um… ok, officially, they mutually parted ways. But it was the fired kind of parting ways, not the “we love you, Oscar, come back some day,” kind.
Let’s break it down.
Lineups and Tactics
Coach Eric Quill kept the 4-3-1-2 (as the team seems to be calling it, I call this a diamond 4), a good thing for my money at this time. The were only two changes to the XI, Maarten Paes, unsurprisingly, came back into the goal, and, surprisingly, Nolan Norris got his first start at left back.
“It opens a lot of space for me and also gives some support in offensive situations. We’re still building our moments. I think we are on a good path. We have a lot of quality, still a lot of space to develop and just need to continue like that.”
Petar Musa on the FCD formation
56th minute, Logan Farrington and Tsiki Ntsabeleng came on for Leo Chu and Patrickson Delgado. That feels a bit early for a minute restriction, so perhaps it’s an attempt to get ahold of the midfield.
75th minute, Kaick makes his MLS and FCD debut coming on alongside Marco Farfan for Sebastian Lletget and Norris. These are defensive-minded fresh leg swaps.
Finally, Lalas Abubakahar came on for Lucho Acosta in the 91st minute. This was a shift to 5 in the back and getting a little more height into the box.
Sporting KC rolled with a classic 4-3-3.
77th minute, Memo Rodríguez replaced Jacob Bartlett. In theory, offense for defense.
79th minute, William Agada and Erik Thommy came on for Dejan Joveljic and Shapi Suleymanov.
And in the 91st minute, Zorhan Bassong came on for Jake Davis.
Goals
0-1 Sporting KC goal. 32nd minute. Shapi Suleymanov with a subtle floating cross to the back post where Dániel Sallói is given too much space to settle and shoot. Sallói, the FCD killer, now has 9 goals against Los Toros.
1-1 FC Dallas goal. 37th minute. Lovely steal by Lucho Acosta on a flubbed back pass, then he and Petar Musa do what Moose and Squirrel do, and as often happens, a goal comes.
2-1 FC Dallas goal. 39th minute. A fabulous long ball by Oz Urhoghide opens the defense for Sebastian Lletget. Lletget makes a wonderful burst forward to turn the corner and finds Leo Chu open in the box. Chu takes a touch and finishes cleanly.
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Lucho Acosta. 47 touches, 8 progressive passes, 4 progressive carries and the first goal. With the goal, Acosta is now the 7th member of MLS’ 75/75 club, along with Landon Donovan, Jaime Moreno, Dwayne De Rosario, Diego Valeri, Preki, and Steve Ralston.
“I am very happy. The truth is that at halftime I saw the stat. It’s an honor to continue making history and I am happy I got to this statistical landmark with Dallas.”
Lucho Acosta
If you are curious about Jason Kreis, he has 108 goals and 74 assists.
I love the mentality from FCD to come back and come back quickly. This team has a belief. There can be a natural tendency to let off a bit after a goal, but FCD kept the pressure on. Love seeing mental toughness.
“They scored a goal early on, but what I liked was our response to change the game with our effort and desire. That’s what got us our first and second goal.”
Coach Eric Quill
Oz Urhoghide was fantastic. What a signing he’s turned out to be it almost makes up for Enes Sali. The pass to Lletget that led to the Chu goal was terrific. Oz was 1/2 on tackles, 2/2 on challenges, 2 blocks, 7 clearances, 7 recoveries, and 95% passing. But mostly it’s his recovery pace that lets him cover up a bunch of errors by other defenders (and himself).
I thought Nolan Norris had a solid, but not perfect, first start at left back. He’s not taking away Marco Farfan’s spot just yet, but maybe some more PT can come. It’s important to rest Farfan as FCD has burned him out every season since he arrived. Norris had just 72% passing but 2 progressive passes (the most of any FCD defender) and 1 shot creating action.
“Really happy to get the win, just like any player on this team my job is to help win games. Whether that is in training to help them prepare or when my name is called upon. When I heard earlier in the week it was my chance to play, also at left back my first chance in MLS, I was just really excited. Especially to play at home, I just want to build on this opportunity.”
Nolan Norris
While it’s costing him touches, pass percentage, and some progression, I love the freedom Sebastian Lletget is getting in this newer shape. Playing him as a higher box-to-box 8 is making this shape work as he can burst forward in support as the 4th or even 5th extra piece in attack. 3 shot-creating actions, the assist, and a 0.4 xA. I looked at a couple of different charts, and his average position is above Chu. That’s some aggressive play (and a heavy workload).
Camino del Medio
The Dallas defensive shape and cohesion were solid and pretty tight. They kept their shape in the low block and didn’t let Sporting have many real chances (1.1 xG on Fbref). KC only got 12 passes into the penalty area despite having 596 pass attempts and 62% possession. It was like watching KC play Luchi-ball. You can see the deep shape and the locked-in back 5 below (and also the aforementioned freedom Lletget is getting)
“There’s some things we still have to work on, but for me, we closed the game out like warriors. Aerial duels, grinding through the end and it’s never easy when it’s a one-goal game. Teams will throw the kitchen sink at you and I thought we did a great job of finding a way to win. “
Coach Eric Quill
It’s amazing to me that the newest signing, the 19-year-old Kaick, made his debut before Show Cafumana, one of last year’s best returning midfielders, made his return for the season. I’m flabbergasted and not sure what to say about it. Cafumana’s loan runs out in June. I thought Show was going to be a key player this year and now I have no idea if he will play here again before his loan runs out.
Muy Feo
Léo Chú scored a goal, so I’ll give him that. But he’s not doing a lot else for me. To be fair, I assume he will be better outside in a 4-3-3 instead of inside in this shape. 0 shot-creating actions, 0 goal-creating actions (even though he scored), 0 progressive passes, 1 progressive carry, 1/4 in take-ons, 0 passes into the penalty area, and 3 miscontrolls. That’s not great, Bob.
Dead horse alert: FC Dallas was one-dimensional again. FC Dallas only had 23 progressive passes. Compare that to the 60 (!) that Sporting had. Dallas has only 12 progressive carries versus the 20 Sporting had. So it’s not just that Dallas doesn’t get possession, they also can’t line break or build. Thus, FCD had only 7 shots at home (to SKC’s 13) with just 2 on target (to 5). Thank goodness FCD had their shooting boots on and both were goals.
The back post on the Moore/Ibeagha side remains an issue. Not much to say about it other than another goal came from that area.
Chu has more goals for Dallas than Ferreira does for Seattle
It’s amazing. What’s happening with Jesus is hard to understand.