The final week or two leading up to a new regular season is always a MLS sicko’s dream. Everyone and their mother is putting out some sort of preview or prediction for the upcoming season that gets picked up by the search engine machine at Google (or Bing if you are one of those people who weirdly uses that search engine).
While we’ve done our own contributing to this SEO machine, there are plenty of others to dive into here before we get into the new season.
Let's dive into these previews and discuss where some experts out there are on the right path with their thoughts and where some may be a little off with their predictions.
The free stuff tells you what happened. A paid subscription tells you why it happened, what it means for FC Dallas, and what’s coming next—before anyone else catches up.
The Designated Players (Podcast)
Episode 431 is LIVE! We sat down with Jose from Golz TV to chat all things #DTID heading into 2026! Be sure to check it out on YouTube or anywhere you get your podcasts! Video: youtu.be/2hMR1AdNhaU Audio: linktr.ee/thedppod
— The Designated Players | An MLS Podcast (@thedppod.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T15:05:27.474Z
American Soccer Analysis
The gang at ASA put out a fairly deep breakdown of how FC Dallas runs through Petar Musa:
Petar Musa is pretty good.
In the 2025 MLS regular season, only four players scored more than him, and two players equaled him. Taking out Lionel Messi, Anders Dreyer, and Evander from the list, you’re left with three center or wide forwards in the same echelon of goalscoring last season: Denis Bouanga and Sam Surridge with 24, and Dejan Joveljić equaling Musa’s 18. Here are the radar charts comparing Musa to those three players in relation to all MLS players; his radar chart entirely engulfs Joveljić and nearly engulfs Surridge.
The preview also discusses the moves…or lack of moves going into the new season:
But heading into 2026, as of this writing, FCD’s most notable move was a move out: Goalkeeper Maarten Paes, moves on to Ajax. In comes former CFM goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois. That’s not to say that Paes was lights-out; FCD did let in 55 goals in ‘25, on 54.9 xGA, showing further that this team cleaves closely to predictive models.
Newly-acquired right wingback Herman Johansson shows a further commitment to five at the back, while Joaquín Valiente arrives as a TAM-level attacking midfielder that could provide enough of a creative spark to make it at least somewhat enticing for Musa to stay. That’s needed, because Patrickson Delgado co-led the team in 2025 with just six assists … tied with … wait for it … Petar Musa. The club also added young players in Louicius Deedson (MLS Best XI All Name Team) and Ran Binyamin (represented by the same agency who extorted the Revolution into multimillion dollar fees for average Israeli league players). Top tier process Dallas have there.
Get the full preview here (you’ll need to scroll past a couple other clubs first):
ASA Staff
ASA also put out a great post on their “Prognostication Power Rankings.” It gives us a good idea of whether or not FC Dallas good, bad, overrated, or underrated.
Paul Harvey
MLSSoccer.com
I mean, this is bulletin board material here.
I don’t want to sound like a homer here, but did any of these folks actually pay attention to the club late last season? The ‘big’ losses are also not really that big for FC Dallas this season either. I hate to sound even remotely like a homer, but man, some of these projections are insane.
Backheeled
To get back into more of a fair assessment of FC Dallas, I give you all Backheeled.com’s preview. Here are some nuts and bolts worth checking out:
Why 2026 will be a success
Because there’s an identity that fits the players — and those players are ready to buy-in.
After Lucho Acosta played his final game for FC Dallas last year, the team started to play some really successful ball.
…
Dallas will make their money this season on a militant setup and belief across the roster.
Also, they’re one of the growing list of folks who are making this kind of prediction:
Deep-in-the-weeds prediction
Michael Collodi will be in the Goalkeeper of the Year conversation.
In just over 800 minutes last year, Collodi saved five more goals than expected, as per ASA. The 24-year-old was downright brilliant in his first taste of MLS action. Sure, his numbers were helped by FC Dallas’ insistence on deep defending and, of course, we’re dealing with a small sample size here. But Collodi looked like the real deal in 2025. Don’t be surprised if he’s mentioned in the Goalkeeper of the Year race come the fall.
Tactics Free Zone
Speaking of Collodi-related predictions. Matt Doyle is all in on our young keeper as well.
Goalkeeper of the Year
I'm actually going to make it a four-player list: last year's winner Dayne St. Clair, USMNT No. 1 Matt Freese, former USMNT No. 1 Matt Turner and 2024 Goalkeeper of the Year Kristijan Kahlina.
My pick: Wildcard, bitches! I'm going off my own four-man list and picking FC Dallas homegrown Michael Collodi, who was incredible down the stretch last year.
Collodi's going to benefit from two things here:
Dallas is going to continue conceding a lot of shots, which means he'll produce some very obvious "man, he's good!" data, and...They're still going to be an ultra-defensive team, which means people like me will point to him as more crucial to their success than, say, Freese will be for NYCFC.
/MLS (Reddit)
I haven’t spent a ton of time on Reddit over the last few years, but this may be one of the longest season previews out there. Really cool.
Best Case:
A more consistent run of form sees FC Dallas within playoff contention all season long. The roster's depth ensures the team can handle some fixture congestion and the colossal gap in home games (May 13 to September 5, holy shit), the new signings can earn their stripes, and the team picks up where they left off at the end of last year. Not a crazy contender, but a team that continues trending in the right direction and makes the playoffs once again. And maybe we have a decent time in the USOC or League's Cup.
Worst Case:
Things implode again, only without a singular player at the middle of it all. Quill loses the locker room, the team gets destroyed during the 9-match summer on the road, and even more players start demanding out of Frisco. Last year slightly redefined how bad this team could look for me, and to be perfectly honest, as much as I'm overall feeling better about FCD in 2026, that's not left my memory.
Reasonable Case:
Dallas looks like a young, reworked, developing team. Results are streaky and inconsistent, but they come. Midseason reinforcements take the team from the fringes of the postseason across the line at the last minute once again, only to not see much for it on the other side of Decision Day. The road trip saps out energy from the team and fans leading to some leaner quieter nights in September, and the (reduced capacity) sellout streak ends.
