One of the downfalls of exiting the Leagues Cup is the potential of a long break from playing for a Major League Soccer team.

What would have been a rough three-week break had FC Dallas not exited their group turned into a slightly more manageable two-week break.

Since the team is off for a couple of days this week before returning to training ahead of their potential August 201 return to MLS, we thought it would be wise to take a step back and look at the roster in how it has been built for this season and into next year. The timing also felt fortunate, with the summer transfer window closing just last week.

In our first part of a two-part series, we’ll dive into the roster build-out2 for the upcoming seasons for FC Dallas with a look at the defensive group3. (Our midfield and forwards group will come later on either this weekend or early next week.)