Monday Morning Misery: FC Dallas Struggling With Two Straight Home Losses
With the annual 4th of July home match looming, FC Dallas' home form is rapidly drawing the season
When the final whistle blew on Saturday night, FC Dallas players dropped to the field, deflated, exhausted, and disappointed once again.
Fans shared their frustrations too.
On Wednesday night, FC Dallas gave up 4 goals at home despite taking a lead into halftime. I expressed my frustration on Thursday morning. Maybe I was a bit harsh. They always say to wait a day or two before you really look back, but the game echoed what has become a familiar storyline in Frisco this season.
On Saturday night, the storyline was similarly marred by the kinds of bad luck and struggles that have come to define this roster. Patrickson Delgado was called for an early penalty kick on a foul in the box, leading to San Diego to slot its first of the night from red-hot MVP candidate Dreyer. It was yet another harsh moment for the team, a team that we hope the soccer gods offer some love to in the future.
But Petar Musa snatched a bad back pass and scored a scintillating and professional goal, as he is capable of doing, to level things up. There was hope.
And really, for a stretch of the second half, FC Dallas created enough opportunities to earn Sebastian Lletget his first goal of the season, putting the home side up 2-1. They should have scored more, but when they didn’t take their chances, San Diego made adjustments and found the way forward, first on a poorly defended cross that found Chucky Lozano’s darting run and then a late stunner from Tomas Angel, a guy who I last saw playing live against North Texas. On that go-ahead goal, the FC Dallas defense looked frozen in place.
I mentioned in my most recent article that the team’s season looks to be on life support, and Matt Doyle in his weekly write-up had this to say about our boys from Frisco: “They’re not cooked, but they’re lightly seared.”
Over on Twitter, I asked fans about their questions for the front office after the disappointing week (and season so far). What resulted was a nice flurry of comments and questions that range from longtime discontents to specific asks about the summer transfer window. Click the tweet below to see for yourself.
There are some big questions that fans voiced about the vision of this club that have really lingered for a while through the past three head coaches. Is there a vision for the entire organization? Are the front office and coaching staff on the same page? What message does the organization want to send fans dissatisfied with the performance on the field?
The biggest questions, though, centered on the construction of this roster and what plans the organization has to improve it. Has the front office given Eric Quill a team he can win with? Is the academy and the first team really aligned in their player development? What will the next two transfer windows look like?
And - where is Dan Hunt in all of this?
Over on the FCD Podcast, Garret Melcer reported that Andre Zanotta and company are expected to be active in the summer transfer window, bringing in a player or two to help bolster the squad. Of course, don’t expect a Designated Player kind of signing, but with some expected departures, there is room to bring in competition and fresh legs. Summer signings are typically tricky for teams in Major League Soccer because of the lack of time to integrate, but FC Dallas needs the help.
In the bigger picture, this season reflects the continuation of 2024, of a team that has yet to achieve its potential and a roster that is going to take time to rebuild. Some of the pieces do not fit. That is to be expected, but it is frustrating when Bruce Arena can take over a team and find ways to get lots of value out of different pieces, or Mikey Varas can lead a first-year team to such a strong start. Is FC Dallas’ roster that deficient? What is missing?
We’ll go live tonight on the Afterburn Soccer Show to break those things down and commiserate once again on a disappointing week.