First-place San Diego FC is a tough team sitting atop the West, so in some ways, FC Dallas does a nice job competing, missing so many pieces. One can argue this isn’t a terrible performance.
“You can take the 5-0 San Diego game out, but we’re toe to toe with everybody, and we just have moments where we switch off.”
FC Dallas Head Coach Eric Quill
He’s not wrong.
Lineups and Tactics
Coach Eric Quill didn’t have a whole lot of choices, notably at center back where it was Alvaro and Lalas Abubakar or nothing.
One unexpected change, at least by me, was Nolan Norris as a 6, which moved Pedrinho to the bench. I was also a bit surprised to see Bernie Kamungo start in Anderson Julio‘s spot after he was bad against San Jose. Also, in this image, Patrickson Delgado and Sebastian Lletget are swapped from the sides they played in the game.
At halftime, Norris had to come off for an injury. Tsiki Ntsabeleng came on and played the right side 8, shifting Delgado to 6.
67th minute, Logan Farrington replaced Kamungo.
86th minute, Pedrinho came on for Lletget.
San Diego FC in a 4-3-3.
At halftime, they also made a change with Tomas Angel on for Manu Duah.
71st minute, a triple sub. Chucky Lozano, Jasper Loffelsend, and Franco Negri came on for Alex Mighten, Oscar Verhoeven, and Luca Bombino.
Last chance in 90+8th minute, Emmanuel Boateng was on for Milan Lloski.
Goals
0-1 San Diego FC goal. 26th minute. Patrickson Delgado commits a foul for a PK. Yes it was a foul. Anders Dryer converts a PK.
1-1 FC Dallas goal. 44th minute, Petar Musa is given a gift, he makes a nice cut and scores a blast.
2-1 FC Dallas goal. 56th minute. Musa, with the intercept, then finds Acosta. Acosta carries then lays it to the onrushing Shaq Moore. Moore crosses to Musa, who is saved, but Sebastian Lletget is there to score his first of the year.
2-2 San Diego FC goal. 77th minute. The play is started and finished by Chucky Lozano. He beats Delgado in MF and finds an open teammate. After a couple of touches, the ball is played back to Lozano, who was handed off by Patrickson Delgado and not picked up by Lalas Abubakar. Lozan scores easily.
3-2 San Diego FC goal. Löffelsend to Dreyer, who plays across to the loosely unmarked Tomas Angel for the goal. Patrickson Delgado could have easily cut the ball out, but it went under his foot.
Lo Bueno
My FC Dallas Man of the Match was Shaq Moore. Solid defensively and added the offensive component we’ve been asking for. 3 key passes all probably on crosses, multiple of them to Petar Musa. Maybe his best game for FCD to date.
Lucho Acosta continues to play quite well. Yes, there are still too many passes that go to the other team (2 miscontrols, 2 dispossessions), but a certain amount of allowed when one is trying to create goals, and 82% passing overall is good for a 10. But 10 progressive passes, 7 progressive carries, 8 shot-creating actions, 1/3 on take-ons, 4 key passes, and 9 passes into the final third on 62 touches. That’s outstanding. I wish he played more defense (he did have 3 blocks and 5 recoveries), but that’s an impressive offensive line. He would have been a legit FCD MOTM choice.
Nolan Norris had a pretty good half as a 6. It’s a shame he got hurt. After he went out, Delgado shifted to the 6 rather than Lletget, which I would have expected. Mostly, Norris tried to keep it clear and hit open teammates. 73% passing could be a touch higher, but 4 of his 5 missed passes were long attempts at springing players. 0 dispossessions and 0 miscontrols from the young man are really nice. 24 touches in a half would have put him in the top 5 in the side for 90.
The FCD record stinks, yes, but so far this team hasn’t quit on Coach Quill. It has a group fight and effort. Honestly, some teams in this spot have quit playing with so much grit and heart… this one hasn’t. Yet.
“The way we played in the first half we can compete with anyone in the league. We have the quality. The results will come. I believe in this team.”
Lalas Abubakar
Camino del Medio
Lalas Abubakar
With just 38% possession, it’s actually quite remarkable that FCD got 15 shots out of it. 5 shots on target, for 1 in 3 on target is… ok. But this FCD team, which is usually low in shots, can really be helped by a higher percentage on target. (Except the 80% vs San Jose.)
“We had our chances, I like what we created with the ball tonight. I thought we were bright, but again, we had plenty of chances to win the game. For me, it was more of disappointment on the type of goals we gave up.”
Coach Quill
Sebastian Lletget as the left 8 didn’t work nearly as well as he has as the 6. The game mostly bypassed him: in 85 minutes, just 29 touches. 94% passing. 2 progressive passes and 2 progressive carries with 3 shot-creating actions in just 28 touches is quality. He just needed more time on the ball.
Muy Feo
The defensive shape was a disaster, organizationally speaking. Perhaps something to do with Sebas Ibeagha and Oz Urhoghide being out. Alvaro, while learning English, currently speaks only Portuguese. So it was down to Lalas Abubakar to organize… and that didn’t go so well. Particularly in the 2nd half after Nolan Norris went out injured and FCD had to play without a 6. Look at this 2nd half chart below. What a mess.
The FC Dallas shape in the 2nd half against San Diego FC, June 28. 2025. (credit @MLSstat on Bluesky)
Patrickon Delgado had a terrible game defensively, which is a shame cause he was on a run of a couple of good performances. And since he was playing the 6 for half the game, that’s a real issue. He had some level of culpability for all three San Diego goals.
“The effort was there. It’s not like I’m watching a team that’s not giving effort, and we had chances. I would argue, when it’s 2-2, we had two huge chances to go 3-2 up before they scored. That’s the margins. That’s the margin of every sport. We talk about moments. You take your moments or you don’t, and they (San Diego) took their moment for the third goal. We don’t want to give up three goals, we got to stop bleeding goals.”
Coach Quill
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