After Opening Win, the Leagues Cup Is Just What FC Dallas Needed

Many of us wondered how serious FC Dallas would take the Leagues Cup, but on Wednesday night with a big win over Club Querétaro, the team got a dose of medicine the doctor ordered.

If you were to administer a truth serum to a sports coach about the importance of an upcoming game, any coach of any sport will tell you that they want to win. You don’t get into athletics if you don’t care about the final score. Sure, there are games where the travel schedule, opponent, and state of your squad humble you to the immense challenge of the coming 90 minutes (or whatever), but you want to win. The players want to win. The fans want to win.

Even in those rare instances where a team deliberately fields a rotated squad to rest key guys, there’s still a thread of hope — maybe someone will step up and make a name for themselves.

But you want to win.

There was plenty of chatter among fans before FC Dallas faced Club Querétaro on Wednesday night that the combination of schedule and opponents would be too much for a team that still looked to be emerging out of the long World Cup break. There were suggestions that FC Dallas would heavily rotate, lean on the youngsters, and just take the tournament as a series of experience-building friendlies.

And then, in front of a soon-to-be traffic-jammed crowd in Mansfield, FC Dallas went out and beat a club by all accounts who were better than them.

Did the opening lineup give us a clue as to what Eric Quill and company were thinking? Yes, notably with Anderson Julio starting as a lone striker up top and recent signing Clay Holstad stepping in for his first career FC Dallas start, Quill read the tea leaves and decided some rotation was needed. Petar Musa hadn’t quite returned to form since the World Cup. Logan Farrington has looked snake bit. Here was a chance to rest a few legs but also roll the dice a bit.

If the game resulted in a loss, the Leagues Cup could have been the perfect chance to give some youngsters minutes the rest of the way and help the squad get healthy.

If you win, well, you enjoy the ride.

And enjoy the ride they did!

Petar Musa came on for an injured Anderson Julio, who by all accounts may be done in Major League Soccer, and Kaick stepped in for Holstad after the break. FC Dallas found a second half surge of energy, with Santi Moreno scoring the go ahead goal and Valiente finally tallying his first score in an FCD kit. The result was a resounding win and gave the squad the life they needed.

Coming into the game on Wednesday, FC Dallas had only garnered 2 points in three road matches. Certainly, that isn’t a five alarm fire, but it felt like the squad had left points in Los Angeles (or Carson to be exact) and Portland. Maybe San Diego too. Despite surging up to 4th place before the World Cup break, FC Dallas now found themselves on a slow descent into 6th. That is not where they wanted to be.

Now with the big win — and still a tough slog ahead against Chivas in San Jose tonight and an away match in Toluca, FC Dallas have life. There is no reason not to take the moment, build on a confident and dominant performance at home, and see where this tournament takes them. Expect rotation, sure. Trust that Quill will want to find an opportunity to give Musa a break. But… winning cures a lot of ills.

FC Dallas can make a deep run, and they do need this opportunity to get some guys, like Valiente, who have been good but not good enough to begin to deliver. Maybe the stakes being a bit low eased some pressure off the team. Maybe the moment will allow a few others to shine, when Musa and company need it.

I’m looking for another win tonight in San Jose, 2-1, as Sam Sarver comes off the bench late to do something fun and help FC Dallas punch their ticket to the next round.