What I'm watching for as FC Dallas hosts Real Salt Lake

More rotation is the name of the game.

Photo via FC Dallas

We are getting into the bulky part of FC Dallas's regular season. I’m honestly not sure if ‘bulky part’ is a great phrase for this, but with games in the midweek followed by games on the weekend for a couple of weeks in a row, it feels…yeah, bulky.

FC Dallas didn’t host a regular media call this week, likely due to travel reasons, so I am swapping some other usual content pieces ahead of our next game.

Tomorrow’s game against Western Conference leaders Real Salt Lake will be one of the biggest tests to date for FC Dallas. Here are a couple of items I will be keeping an eye on tomorrow night.

Stopping Arango isn’t the only thing FCD needs to do

Cristian Arango is on a tear in Major League Soccer this season. He has contributed to 21 of RSL’s 27 goals (14 g/7 a). If there weren’t a guy named Lionel Messi playing in Miami right now, Arango would be the clear runaway favorite for league MVP. The Colombian striker has done everything right with RSL since arriving late last summer from Liga MX.

In the six games where he didn’t score, RSL has a 3-2-1 record. In games where he doesn’t score or assist this season, RSL is 1-1-1.

So stopping him doesn’t mean you stop RSL entirely. Fellow Colombian Andres Gomez has also scored seven goals and four assists this season.