Some nights come down to one moment. Saturday night in Los Angeles was exactly that. It just happened to not go in FC Dallas‘ favor.
FC Dallas held its own for long stretches against LAFC, but ultimately left BMO Stadium empty-handed again after a 1-0 defeat. What will likely be a Goal of the Week candidate from David Martinez proved to be the difference maker, breaking a match that otherwise felt evenly balanced for much of the night.
For FC dallas, the first loss of the 2026 season is a simple reminder of just how thin the margins can be on the road in this league.
Let’s dive into some key points we learned from this result.
Outshooting LAFC in their building
To put it short, I didn’t have this one on my bingo card for this game.
FC Dallas came into BMO Stadium with only three goals to their name in seven all-time meetings and actually got some good looks on goal for a change. Sure, none of them got past Lloris, who was equally as good as Collodi on the night.
I won’t fixate too much on the xG totals here, but the shot quality on the night was fairly spread. Dallas was able to really move the ball forward in this one in a manner that I don’t think many believed they could.
“LAFC is a really quality side, and they have the kind of talent this league has been watching for a few years. I’ve seen a lot of teams come here and not do what we did tonight. We were never on our heels; the crowd was into it, and it felt like a long night, but the game flew by for me because I didn’t want it to end. I felt like we were knocking on the door. Our guys looked like they were enjoying themselves, fighting hard, and believing in what we were doing. The positives are all over the place. We’re better than being held out of scoring for two games. We created chances, and I really like the team’s performance, how we’re training, and how we approach games like this. We can play with anybody in this league, and I know these guys know it too. I expect huge growth from this game going into next weekend.” - Eric Quill on the positives from the loss