Just as the summer months get going in North Texas, FC Dallas's schedule heats up. Between this Saturday and the middle of July, FC Dallas will play six league games and one US Open Cup game over a 22-day stretch.

It all gets underway this weekend as the club hosts the reigning Supporters’ Shield winners, FC Cincinnati. This will mark the first meeting between the two squads since the 2019 season. The Orange and Blue enter the match with the league’s best road record (7-1-1), as they most recently won at San Jose earlier this month.

Despite the solid record, Cincinnati enters Saturday’s game off a loss against the New England Revolution at home last weekend. Cincy entered that game without some key defensive players Miles Robinson (national team duty with the USMNT at Copa America) and Matt Miazga (injured for the season). Despite all of that, FC Dallas interim manager Peter Luccin still sees Cincy as a tough test for his club this weekend at Toyota Stadium.

“We respect the opponent, but at the same time, the right in our head is going to be just to win in front of our people; we're going to go for the game,” said Luccin. “We have a plan. We need to be smart, and everything that we want to do is smarter than what we did against Seattle in the last 15 minutes, learning and now we, I think that we are very prepared and ready for the game.”

Cincinnati is led by reigning MLS MVP Luciano Acosta, who currently leads the league in assists this season with 15. Luccin knows that it won’t just be Acosta that his club will have to deal with on Saturday, as he claims to understand the weaknesses of the Ohio club.

“We know that's the team that wants to attack and want to be the protagonists,” said Luccin. “This is what we want to do. So I think it is going to be very good to see games like this. And we know, we know their strength, we know their weakness.”

Following the Cincinnati game, FC Dallas will play six more times between the start of July and mid-July before the league breaks for the annual Leagues Cup tournament with the Liga MX clubs. Luccin hopes that his staff can help manage the load of his players during this difficult run of games.

“So in terms of in terms of objective and goals, I think that we are going game after game, but in terms of management and the rotation, we need to do that,” said Luccin. “I think that we have been doing that so far. This Saturday is very important for us as staff. We want to make sure that we're on the same page. We're not pushing too much the players. We have a good group, so, so right now, just about management is just about rotation.”

Luccin stated that his club would already be behind the eight ball to open up this stretch with injuries to Patrickson Delgado and Jesus Ferreira. Both players are expected to be out for two to four weeks with their injuries. The Frenchman confirmed that Ferreira reaggravated the same injury that already kept him out of seven games this season and the majority of the club’s preseason.

“I need more data, but I think it is going to be around two and four weeks, as is the injury that he has had in the past,” said Luccin. “So, now we are trying to give the best assessment. We have a lot of people around him. We're going to make sure that that thing is not happening again.”

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