Monday Show Notes: North Texas Make Statement; FC Dallas Draw

With a show tonight at 8 PM CST, we'll begin with North Texas, crushing visiting Minnesota United FC 2 8-2 to close out the regular season. FC Dallas finishes with a 0-0 draw in Portland.

Well, friends, the Afterburn Soccer show is back tonight with FC Dallas winding down its regular season… and overall season, but North Texas giving us another reason to show up and support professional soccer in DFW.

We go live at 8 PM CST, using the Youtube link above to watch along and send in your questions.

But first, applaud those North Texas kids.

North Texas cinched its regular season title over MLS Next Pro last weekend, but on Sunday afternoon, the young side revealed some pent-up goal-scoring ahead of the postseason, unleashing eight beauties on a visiting Minnesota United FC 2 team that appeared shell-shocked. While Minnesota had moments when they tried to get back into the game, the heat undid them.

What was clear after the game was the focus, guys like Enes Sali who are stepping up with the desire to end this season as champions.

Interim head coach Michel acknowledged too that his work off of this shellacking will be to keep the guys grounded and hungry, since the playoffs are a fresh start for everyone, even though North Texas will have home field advantage.

Add this wrinkle in - North Texas, due to Next Pro playoff magic, will get to choose their first round opponent. Who do they pick? Do they go with 8 seed Houston Dynamo 2, in-state rivals? Or get cute and look at another side that might be in a fragile state?

And second, FC Dallas’ Season Is (Essentially) Over

But a credible Portland Timbers away draw is interesting.

First, let’s give credit again to Jimmy Maurer, in some of his likely final moments in goal for FC Dallas, doing the big-time work to preserve a clean sheet on the road. The Timbers are a good team, although they have been uneven this year. If anything, this result revealed that FC Dallas isn’t that far off from being at the bottom of the playoff seeding with a few other results having gone their way earlier in the season.

Second, Peter Luccin is making his final case for the permanent head coaching position. Has he done enough? An away draw is the kind of performance that this team lacked earlier in 2024. Give them a few of those, and the playoffs are still in the picture for this side. However, fans struggled once again with Luccin’s substitution patterns. What is his vision for the team? Can and should FC Dallas look elsewhere before settling on him?

We’ll discuss this tonight, including Musa’s frustration being subbed off on Wednesday at the embarrassing loss in San Jose.

See you a little later this evening!