The FC Dallas season came to end sooner than many (if not all) fans would’ve liked. While FC Dallas did make it to the playoffs this year after the “Great Collapse” of 2017″, there still seems to be some things that are lingering from last season.
FC Dallas ended the season with 16-9-9 (W-L-T) record with being 10-2-5 at home and 6-7-4 on the road finishing with 57 points putting them 4th in the Western Conference and 6th in the Supporters Shield. In the year of the Great Collapse, FCD went 11-10-13, 8-2-7 at home and, 3-8-6 on the road to get 46 points and finish 7th in the conference and 13th in the shield.
So in comparison, Dallas picked up 11 more points which isn’t bad. Oscar Pareja and Co. converted two draws at home to wins this year in comparison to last year which is a little disappointing. The road record improved greatly from 15pts to 22pts. I think their road record is what helped them the most this season as their home performance, with the exception of the two home losses, is what is expected from this team.
The Preseason+Summer Window
I think that the team did great with their offseason signing. They brought in Anton Nedyalkov who was to be the future left-back/left wingback for this team. He was affectionately known as the Bulgarian Butcher by Kenny Price from the 19th Minute.
The club brought in Reto Ziegler would be brought experience to the backline and pair up well with Matt Hedges.
Santiago Mosquera was a DP that was brought in to bring in some versatility to the front line and he’s showed that he has potential but struggles with consistency.
Jimmy Maurer was brought in to challenge Jesse and he did as he got the starting job early in the season.
In the summer, Marquinhos Pedroso was to replace Anton and he has shown that he can do the job and for being 25 there is a little room for growth.
Dominique Badji was accepted in the trade for Kellyn Acosta and couldn’t find his footing with the team
Abel Aguilar was to function as the team’s closer and I guess he did that job? I don’t really know how to feel on Abel.
The biggest signing of the season for me was Pablo Aranguiz who was dubbed as the “Diaz Replacement”. It’s important to remember that he is a work in progress and not to be rushed and should be viewed as his own player versus comparing him to Diaz.
Brandon Servania, Thomas Roberts, Chris Richards, Kris Reaves, and Jordan Cano were all academy products brought into this team.
I would say that this team did rather well with the main player acquisition that they brought in.
The Good
This teams started off a little slow at the beginning of the season with only picking up 6 points out of 12 points at home. Though as the team under Oscar Pareja normally does shot up in the standings and was in the number 1 spot or near it throughout the majority of the season. So the norm was reached which is good.
What I think is the biggest take away from this team and more of a praise to Papi and the coaching staff is handling the team and the changes that happened. There were some big changes with this team with the loss of Mauro Diaz, Kellyn Acosta, and Anton Nedyalkov.
The backline did great throughout this season considering that 75% of it changed from last year. Reto, Reggie, Anton, and Pedroso all stepped up as newcomers to the backline. I think they were solid and did well.
The midfield had an interesting change will the
The Rough
Though the biggest loss was Mauro Diaz and it had more of an impact than what I or the team would like to admit. I was under the impression and believed that FC Dallas was doing fine after he moved on but it wasn’t so. To borrow some stats from this 3rd Degree article, FCD was 8-1-5 when Diaz was in the lineup, scored 24 times with a 1.7 goal/game average and were not held scoreless. After the departure of Daiz, Dallas went 8-8-4, had 28 goals scored for 1.4 goals/game and were held scoreless 6 times. It’s hard to argue that Diaz did not make an impact. The production definitely dried up which is concerning.
Finishing…
Yeah, it was painful. It really haunted us throughout the last games of the season. Sure Maxi and Lamah got 8 goals with Barrios and Santi coming in at 6 goals a game but geez, the finishing. I don’t know know what else to say but that it really needs to get better and if Papi and the team need to spend all offseason on how to kick a ball into the goal, well so be it.
Los Toros seemed to lose some steam at the end as well and to me its an interesting fact to bring up. Whether this may be a result of being Champions League and causing the guys to hit the ground running is an interesting prospect. In 2016, they didn’t have Champions League and looked good all the way up to the last game of the season. If this is a mental thing, that’s something that the coaching staff can work on. I’m interested to see if this will be an issue on in the future
Overall, it was an okay season. It had its good and it had its bad. I personally thought that this was going to be more of a rebuilding season with FC Dallas hovering around the middle to bottom of the playoff spot. Instead, they surprised and were holding on to the top spot throughout the season and looked burned out at the end. I’m going to count on this being a busy offseason for this team for the team, coaching, and front office. I feel like there is something that this team wants to prove and I hope that they can prove not only to us but the rest of the league that there is more than on the surface to this club.
Photo: Dallas Sports Fanatic
