Sunday’s scoreless draw against the Portland Timbers didn’t change the outcome for FC Dallas’ playoff chances. They knew going into this game that they were eliminated from contention, so interim manager Peter Luccin opted to roll the dice on some changes to his formation and lineup against the Timbers.
For the most part, it worked well as the team earned another road shutout for Jimmy Maurer, while also adding some intriguing questions to our upcoming offseason.
Let’s dive into a couple of notes we picked up from the final road game of 2024.
Note: I know I normally get to these game breakdowns on Mondays after a weekend match but given that we’re about to be on a bit of a break from league play for FC Dallas, it felt okay to delay this by a day.
A new(ish) formation
We know the FC Dallas defense has not had a good season. The eyeball test doesn’t get passed for this group and the stats back it up. So, going into the second-to-last game of the season Luccin looked for a change defensively. He ditched the 3-4-3 and went back to a 4-3-3.
