FC Dallas 2021 Season Review: Midfielders and Forwards
After looking at the goalkeepers and defenders last week, our 2021 season review moves up the pitch as we look back at the FCD midfielders and forwards’ performances in the 2021 season.
Midfielders
Bryan Acosta // C+
The Honduran DP midfielder’s 2021 season can pretty neatly be divided into two parts: pre-Gold Cup and post-Gold Cup.
Pre Gold-Cup, Acosta was arguably FCD’s best player. In his first two seasons with the club, Acosta showed flashes of a DP quality player with his ability to cover the ground, progress the ball and do the defensive work standing out in his game. But he was often forced to miss time due to injury, which caused him to move in and out of a crowded FC Dallas lineup. When he was off, he was a frustrating player. The work rate was always there, but he became known for blasting long shots well over the crossbar and had an irritating number of defensive lapses that would often lead to chances and goals.
But in the first half of 2021, Acosta seemed to be putting it all together finally. Week after week in the first half of the season, Acosta was one of the best performers for FCD, consistently putting in performances that finally seemed to justify the DP tag and high salary for Acosta. Unfortunately, these performances rarely translated to results. Ultimately, Acosta was putting in substantial efforts in losses on the road and draws at home as Dallas slipped down the table as the season continued. As the Gold Cup approached, Acosta played the first half in an away game against the LA Galaxy before being subbed off after what was by far his worst performance of the season to that point.
Unfortunately, that game only hinted at what was to come. After returning from the Gold Cup, Acosta, typically slow to get back going with FCD after returning from international duty, seemed to revert to his old, frustrating ways. As always, the work rate seemed to be there, but the ball progression seemed to disappear, and the defensive lapses returned anew. By the end of the season, Acosta was no longer starting games, having lost his place to Brandon Servania and did not even travel to San Jose with the squad for the last game of the season. Acosta’s contract status is unknown, but signs seem to indicate him having a club option year. It looks like now would be a good time for FCD and Acosta to part ways; it just hasn’t worked out here.
Facundo Quignon // C
Just before the 2021 season got underway, FCD’s starting defensive midfielder in 2020 (and in preseason 2021), Thiago Santos, was sold to Gremio. It was a surprising move that seemed to come out of nowhere. When Santos was signed as a 30-year-old, the assumption, at least for me, was that he’d be a starter for a few years until his contract ran out. Seeing him sold just before the season started was a surprise, to say the least. Dallas was left with basically no time to actually replace Santos before the season started. His replacement, Argentinean Facundo Quignon, was not signed until mid-June.
Quignon pretty quickly proved to be a downgrade from Santos. To be clear, Quignon is not a bad player and did not have a bad season, but when the second MLSPA Salary Guide was released, it was revealed that Quignon is one of FCD’s highest-paid players, and his performances in 2021 certainly did not justify that pay. Quignon’s best characteristic seems to be his tackling, and he is a genuinely strong tackler and is good at winning the ball back in midfield. His passing is just fine, he does not excel at long passing, but he is adequate at playing short passes and linking with his midfielders. He seemed to be good for at least one terrible giveaway per game and was responsible for a handful of the goals FCD conceded this season. He is basically a nonfactor further up the field and seems unable to play as a single pivot, needing another holding midfielder next to him to be most effective.
By the end of the season, like the previously mentioned Bryan Acosta, Quignon had been replaced in the lineup by homegrown midfielder Edwin Cerrillo. He seems likely to have a contract that will be difficult for Dallas to shed in the offseason, so expect Quignon to be back for 2022, hopefully performing at a higher level than he did in 2021.
Brandon Servania // B+
After breaking into the first team in a big way down the stretch in 2019, Brandon Servania had a disappointing season in 2020 and seemed to be a bit of an odd man out in midfield going into 2021. After training with Bayern in the winter, Servania went on a loan with Austrian club SKN St Poelten through the remainder of the European 20/21 season. That stint saw Servania get plenty of playing time. However, that playing time was often out of his normal midfield position (he was usually deployed as a right wingback) and was with a team that was ultimately relegated at the end of the year.
Although Servania’s loan stint didn’t result in staying in Europe, it did see him return to Dallas seemingly re-energized. It took him some time to get back into the squad, he didn’t make his first appearance until July 21st against Colorado, and his first start wasn’t until the end of August when FCD went to Austin and won 5-3. From that game onwards, he had cemented a spot in the team, starting in 10 more games and appearing in all but one game in the remainder of the season. Servania ultimately ended up doing a lot of what Bryan Acosta did in the first half of the season with his ball progression and work rate, and the partnership he developed with fellow homegrown Edwin Cerrillo was one of the things that made watching this team enjoyable even after they had been eliminated from the playoffs. Servania is a player that FCD should look to build around in midfield going into 2022.
Edwin Cerrillo // B+
Another homegrown who broke into the first team in 2019 but had a disappointing 2020 campaign, Edwin Cerrillo, was reportedly very close to also going on loan in Europe prior to the season. Still, an injury during his time training with Bayern kept him from being able to pursue that opportunity. Cerrillo started the 2021 season on the outside looking in, mainly spending time playing games with North Texas SC instead of making the bench or getting minutes with the first team. However, as poor results continued into the summer and Cerrillo had strong performances with NTSC, Cerrillo was brought back into the first team, making his first start of the season on July 7th against the LA Galaxy. Cerrillo would ultimately make 16 starts in 2021. By the end of the season had replaced Facundo Quignon in the starting eleven, developing nice chemistry and a relationship with fellow homegrown Brandon Servania.
Cerrillo was always solid in possession, his game is much more of a “win the ball and get it out of your feet” kind of game, but he has started to add a more physical edge to his game to go along with that. Cerrillo is still very young, especially for a defensive midfielder, and he may not yet be ready to be a week-in-week-out starter for an MLS playoff team. Still, he will undoubtedly factor into the midfield picture in 2022.
Andres Ricaurte // C
Signed in the middle of the 2020 season, Andres Ricaurte looked like a very promising midfield piece coming into the 2021 season following some strong performances during 2020, where he displayed his apparent talents on the ball. Ricaurte entered 2021 as a starter in midfield and scored FCD’s first home goal of the season against Portland. Unfortunately, that would end up being the only goal Ricaurte scored in 2021. He started the season decently enough, putting in some solid performances when played as a free-roaming 8 alongside Bryan Acosta with Tanner Tessmann sitting behind them. But as the poor team performances mounted and Jesus Ferreira returned to the lineup, Ricaurte quickly found himself on the outside looking in and started to regularly become a sub-option instead of a starter.
Ricaurte played in 26 games in 2021 but only made 9 starts and ultimately played fewer minutes in 2021 than he did in 2020. His minutes especially dried up following Luchi Gonzalez’s departure as under Marco Ferruzzi, Ricaurte only played 5 times for a total of 78 minutes. By that point, the writing was on the wall, with it becoming obvious that FC Dallas would not execute the buy option in Ricaurte’s loan.
It is all but confirmed at this point that he wouldn’t be back this season. Ricaurte is a very talented player, but unfortunately, things just didn’t work out for him here at FCD.
Tanner Tessmann // B
Although Tessmann was not on the squad by the end of the 2021 season, having transferred to Serie A club Venezia FC in mid-July, he did play a significant role in the team in the first part of the season starting 6 of the first 7 games. Following the international window in early June, Tessmann’s role in the team dropped off significantly as rumors of his impending transfer ramped up, and his final appearance for FCD was an 11-minute sub appearance against Minnesota United on June 19th.
Prior to his transfer, Tessmann was typically deployed as a 6, the deepest sitting midfielder in a trio that typically also included Andres Ricaurte and Bryan Acosta. This midfield generated some strong moments going forward. Still, it lacked some cohesion defensively, and Tessmann was asked to do a lot as he was forced into a slightly unnatural role following the sale of Thiago Santos. Sadly we never got to see Tanner play with most of the rest of the homegrowns in 2021 prior to his move to Europe. Tessmann is now pushing for minutes and a major role in a Venezia FC side that, surprisingly enough, looks poised to avoid relegation in 21/22.
Thomas Roberts // N/A
After not making a first-team appearance in 2020, Thomas Roberts was hoping to finally assert himself in the first team coming into 2021 and early word out of FCD training camp in the preseason was that he was looking really sharp and pushing for a spot. Unfortunately for Thomas, an injury early in preseason kept him out until the early parts of the regular season and, although he made the bench regularly in the initial stages of the season, he never actually made an appearance for the first team in 2021. In search of playing time, he went on loan to Austrian Bundesliga club Austria Klagenfurt in the summer.
To this point, that loan has not resulted in the playing time Roberts was looking for, as he has only made a handful of short sub appearances thus far in the league. It will be interesting to see if that continues if FCD chooses to recall him early and have him join up for preseason with FCD in 2022.
Nicky Hernandez // N/A
FCD’s first-round SuperDraft pick in 2021, Hernandez spent the entirety of the season on loan with North Texas SC.
Although he did put in some strong performances at times, it was overall a worse year than his breakout 2020 season with NTSC, and he’ll need to show a big improvement in training camp in 2022 to factor into the picture with the FCD first team.
Forwards
Ricardo Pepi // A
Photo: Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports
There’s not much to say about Ricardo Pepi that hasn’t already been said. After making a breakthrough into the first team as a regular starter in the latter stages of 2020, Pepi began 2021 as a backup for Franco Jara as the DP forward was given a chance to nail down the job. Pepi scored FCD’s first goal of the season in the second game of the season against San Jose in a 3-1 defeat, but he didn’t assume the starting striker position until midway through July in the 4-0 win over the LA Galaxy in which he scored his first MLS hat trick. He didn’t look back from there, ending the season with 13 goals and 3 assists and becoming the highlight of an otherwise disastrous season.
Pepi’s improvement over the course of the season was a joy to watch, and FCD fans surely felt immense amounts of pride when he scored his first goals for the USMNT and eventually became the locked-in starter for the World Cup Qualifying. Pepi has apparently expressed a desire for FCD to sell him in the upcoming winter transfer window, so it seems like El Tren has made his last stop at Toyota Stadium, but what a ride it was.
Jesus Ferreira // A
After breaking out in a big way in the 2019 season and leading the club in scoring, the son of former MLS MVP David Ferreira had a disappointing 2020 season, only recording 1 goal and 1 assist in less than 1000 minutes played. Things didn’t look to be taking a turn for the better as the 2021 season approached when Ferreira suffered a preseason injury that forced him to miss the early part of the 2021 season. Ferreira made his season debut on June 19th as a second-half sub and then proceeded to start every single game after that. Ferreira, as he was in the second part of 2019 and in 2020, was deployed as a second striker, playing off of Franco Jara initially and Ricardo Pepi later in the season.
Ferreira’s season really sprang to life when Pepi became the starting striker, and Ferreira ended the season with 8 goals and a team-high 8 assists and was rewarded with a USMNT call-up in November window and was given his competitive debut by Gregg Berhalter against Mexico. Pepi stole the spotlight in 2021, but Ferreira’s play and his growth as a player should not be understated; this was a massive step forward for Ferreira, who often showed flashes of this potential in previous seasons.
Ferreira played well enough that, along with Pepi, there are rumblings of European interest. FCD will hope to stave these off as Ferreira looks like a player to build the offense around in 2022.
Jader Obrian // B
Following the…interesting decision to trade Michael Barrios to the Colorado Rapids following the 2020 season, FCD had an obvious hole to fill at the right-wing position. That hole would be filled by the leading goal scorer in the Colombian league in 2020, Jader Obrian. Obrian seemed to strike a similar profile to Barrios when Barrios came to Dallas back in 2015, a prolific scorer in the Colombian first division who was a bit of a late bloomer in his career trajectory. They even shared similar physical characteristics in their short stature and pace running down the wings.
However, actually matching Barrios’ production and ability in MLS turned out to be another story for Obrian, especially early in the season. Although Obrian notched a couple of goals early in the season, he often looked out of place technically, failing to connect on simple passes and often looking a bit clumsy on the ball. He also had the tendency to go down with the slightest contact, and he seemed to quickly develop a reputation with MLS refs and was rarely given the fouls he was looking for. After a run of 11 starts in a row to start the season, Obrian was dropped to the bench for 9 out of the next 10 games. This seemed to cause a shift in Obrian’s play. I’m not sure if something clicked, or he just continued to adapt to MLS and his teammates, but he was suddenly looking very dangerous as a second-half sub and was no longer looking to go down at the slightest contact.
He eventually worked his way back into the starting lineup under Luchi Gonzalez, most notably scoring back-to-back braces against NYCFC and Houston in September. However, those braces were not enough to save Luchi’s job. Interestingly, Obrian seemed to flourish even more under Marco Ferruzzi; he started all 8 games under Marco, scoring a goal and picking up two assists along the way while looking like a genuinely competent player that could be useful going forward into 2022, a far cry from what his future with FCD was looking like during the summer. There is still plenty of work to be done for Obrian to be a starter for a playoff-caliber team, largely around his defensive work and positioning, but, all things considered, it was a decent first season for the man they call El Soldado.
Szabolcs Schön // B+
In addition to trading Michael Barrios and opening up, a spot on the right-wing, FC Dallas also gutted their group of left-wingers after the 2020 season, trading Fafa Picault to Houston and declining Santiago Mosquera’s contract option for 2021. Part of the solution to replace those two players on the wing was to bring in young Szabolcs Schön from MTK Budapest in Hungary. Schön was signed under the new MLS U22 initiative. When FCD signed Schön, he was already a regular for Hungary’s U21 squad and was getting attention in terms of a full senior national team call-up.
Schön made his FCD debut against Houston as a sub and made a couple more appearances as a sub before receiving that full senior national team call-up and joining up with Hungary for Euros 2020. Following the Euros, Schön rejoined the team in July and made another series of sub appearances before getting his first start on 7/24 against the LA Galaxy, a game in which he picked up his first MLS assist. Schön made a series of 8 starts in a row, in which he posted 6 assists before being returned to a sub role for most of the rest of the season.
Frustratingly for many fans, Schön’s minutes dropped off a cliff under Marco Ferruzzi, only making a single start under the interim manager. That being said, Schön was a lot of fun to watch when he did play for FCD. He has a directness to his game that is sometimes missing from FCD’s attack and, although he could stand to add some pounds, he’s not shy about getting into confrontations with opposing defenders. 2022 could be a big year for Schön as he looks to become a regular starter for FCD as well as notch his first MLS goal.
Paxton Pomykal // B
To say that the last couple of years have not gone to plan for Paxton Pomykal is certainly understating things. After finally breaking into the first team as a regular starter in the first part of the 2019 season, Pomykal went to the U20 World Cup and put on a show, regularly being mentioned by international media as one of the most exciting players coming out of the tournament. But by the end of the 2019 season, he seemed to be slowing down slightly, struggling with nagging injuries after his first full season of regular game time as a professional. He entered 2020, coming off of an offseason surgery, and the stop/start nature of the 2020 season did him no favors. He looked to be trying to work himself back into form as the season resumed in summer 2020 but would only play a handful of games before the decision was made to have surgery on a nagging issue and shut his season down.
Pomykal entered the 2021 season as a bit of an odd man out. His “natural” position is in central midfield, but coming off an injury meant FCD wanted to be careful with Pomykal to ensure his health long-term. He started the season making a series of second-half sub appearances, with his first start coming on June 19th, a game in which he was subbed out after the first half. He didn’t play more than 45 minutes until his next start on July 17th in Portland, where he played 82 minutes. At that point, Pomykal became the regular starter at left wing, with Schön unable to get a consistent run in the team due to his time away with Hungary and Freddy Vargas being incredibly ineffective in his time in the position. Pomykal would start almost every game after that and set a career-high for games played in an MLS season with 31. However, it is telling that even with all those games played, Pomykal still ended the season with over 300 fewer minutes played than in his breakout 2019 season.
Although Pomykal is certainly capable of playing on the wing, his performances in 2021 showed that it is certainly not where he is at his best. Pomykal showed a lot of flashes of his old self throughout 2021, with his only goal of the season, a stunning early strike away to SKC (one of FCD’s only two away wins of the season), especially memorable. But often, Pomykal struggled to find games and make any significant impact, and his stat line contribution, 1 goal, and 2 assists underline his struggles to make his mark on the team. But overall, it was a positive season for Pomykal as he got through the season without picking up any further injuries or struggling with fitness. In 2022, he’ll indeed be looking to get back into central midfield and return to the form that had fans, pundits, and foreign clubs so excited in the first place.
Franco Jara // C+
A lot of things have been said about Franco Jara in 2021. With the first release of the MLSPA Salary Guide in 2021, fans and media alike finally found out just how much FCD was paying Jara for his services, and the number wasn’t pretty. $2.9 million is simply a staggering amount compared to the rest of the league, and the production FCD is getting out of him, full stop. But Jara is an FC Dallas player regardless, and he will almost certainly be an FC Dallas player in 2022; and thankfully, for FCD, they are getting some good things from him.
Jara started 2021 as the starting striker but failed to score a goal until the sixth game of the season, and that was from the penalty spot. Jara subsequently lost his starting job to Ricardo Pepi, but, to his credit, he did not sulk and become some kind of toxic presence around the team. He came on for sub appearances and actually started to look like an effective player in his 15-30 minute appearances, offering a nice change of pace for FCD going forward. This trend continued through most of the season, with some sporadic starts mixed in, and by the end of the season, Jara had 7 goals, matching his 2020 total, and added 2 assists while playing fewer total minutes than he did in 2020.
Ultimately, Jara is going to go down as one of the worst signings in club history (barring some kind of incredible resurgence in 2022), but he should get credit for continuing to fight for the team and contribute. Obviously, no one wants to spend almost $3 million on a backup striker, but if that is his role in 2022, he might end up being a surprisingly valuable part of the squad on the field.
Freddy Vargas // D
Signed on loan from the Venezuelan side Deportivo Lara ahead of the 2021 season, Freddy Vargas came to FCD with quite a bit of hype. A young player who shined in Venezuela and was very hyped up by Venezuelan soccer media and was starting to get attention from the Venezuelan national team, Vargas started the preseason looking great. Personally, I can remember watching him knife through Austin FC’s defense in the preseason and thinking that FCD really had something in Vargas. Reports out of training camp during the preseason were that he was looking like the real deal.
Then the season started, and Vargas just…looked bad. That sounds harsh, but there really is no other way to put it. He never looked comfortable; he seemed to completely lose the aggressive attacking style that he seemed to have in Venezuela and in the preseason, and he lacked any kind of end product whatsoever. He was handed a run of starts at the start of the season, but after multiple games of poor play, he was quickly moved to the bench and, before too long, was not even making squads. By the end of the season, he was more often playing with North Texas SC than with FC Dallas. His last start came in a frankly embarrassing performance against Houston, and he barely made an appearance after that game. Vargas certainly has some talent, but the move from Venezuela to MLS seemed to be too big of a jump for him to handle.
Kalil ElMedkhar // C
Signed after 4 years of college at the University of Kentucky, ElMedkhar is an interesting case for FCD. He is a homegrown player but came up through the Philadelphia Union academy. After the Union moved away from using wingers in their first team formation, FCD made a move to trade for his homegrown rights, allowing the club to sign him and have him occupy a roster spot in the same way that a homegrown who came through FCD’s academy would.
Kalil did not make any significant impact in the first team in his first season, making 6 sub appearances for a total of 118 minutes, but he did make a big impact with North Texas SC, scoring 4 goals and adding 5 assists in 14 appearances and appearing on the USL League One Team of the Week on multiple occasions. When Kalil did get MLS minutes, he showed flashes of his potential and talent. Coming into 2022, Kalil will be fighting with the rest of the wingers for time, but with Paxton Pomykal likely to move back into central midfield, he seems most likely to be a backup for Szabolcs Schön going into next season. A strong preseason might see him push for regular minutes with the first team.
Dante Sealy // B
In all honesty, a B is probably a bit inflated for Sealy, who only appeared in 6 games for FCD in 2021 for a total of 62 minutes. But everything is relative to these ratings, and Sealy did score his first MLS goal as an 18-year-old in the early season game against Portland and showed enough to finally get his long-desired move to Europe, going on loan to PSV Eindhoven through the 22/23 season.
It seems pretty unlikely that Sealy will play for FC Dallas again, at least any time in the near future, but he may end up earning the club a decent chunk of change when all is said and done.
Beni Redzic // N/A
FCD’s most recent homegrown signing at the time of writing, Redzic, is a player for the future and looked to be set to play the 2021 season with North Texas SC after playing quite a bit with NTSC in 2020 as an academy player. However, before the 2021 USL League One season even got going, Redzic suffered an injury that required surgery and a long time out and essentially played no minutes at all in 2021.
He seems like a likely candidate for NTSC in 2022, where he’ll hope to get things back on track following a less than ideal first season.
How do you feel about the performance of the midfielders and forwards for FCD in 2021?
Featured Image: Kevin Jairaj/USA TODAY Sports
Discover more from Dallas Sports Nation
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Categorized:FC Dallas