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UPDATE (8/6/2020): The Athletic has now reported that FC Dallas and Nashville SC will meet on August 12, in front of fans at Toyota Stadium. A return match will also be in Frisco, potentially on August 16.
Confirming @benwright report that FC Dallas and Nashville will play next Wednesday and Sunday.
— Paul Tenorio (@PaulTenorio) August 6, 2020
One bit of news from @samstejskal and me: the plan is for games to be played in front of fans.https://t.co/6nd6y8oAww pic.twitter.com/kZDIQuMRiN
The report also states that Dallas will restrict available seats only to a select number of season ticket holders.
It feels like ages since FC Dallas was almost going to play in the MLS is Back tournament earlier this month before having to withdraw due to nearly a third of the team contracting the coronavirus in Orlando.
As Major League Soccer looks to wrap up the tournament and resume their 2020 season in the home markets, there have been reports as to how they would do that. The Athletic detailed out how that might happen, beginning on August 22. One of those wrinkles to the league’s plan was for FC Dallas and Nashville SC to play three games against one another to help make up for the fact that both missed out on the Orlando group stage (those games counted towards the regular season).
Yesterday, Nashville writer Ben Wright caught word that those make-up games could be played as early as next week:
I'm hearing the current plan is for #EveryoneN to play #DTID next Friday in Frisco, the first of three matches to make up their missed #MLSisBack group stage games. More details to come.
— Ben Wright (@benwright) July 30, 2020
On one hand, this is great. Both teams have been training in their home markets for the last couple of weeks since their withdrawal from Orlando and getting some actual, meaningful games sound great.
But on the other hand, this feels incredibly rusted and reckless to get games this quickly. While it appears that most of the Dallas players who contracted COVID-19 have recovered or never really showed heavy symptoms, the fact remains, we’re still in a pandemic. I want soccer back as quickly as we can here in town but I also want that feeling of security for everyone involved (including myself if I’m going to sit in a press box covering it).
Everyone had a comment (or three) on the league’s plan in Orlando. For the most part, the tournament has been a pretty big success. The downside of that is the feeling that things can go back to normal in the home markets when the reality is we’re still so far away from anything close to normalcy here.
What do you make of a potential game next week here in Frisco?