After a weird week that saw FC Dallas score seven and give up six goals, the club returns home this weekend for its first matchup against an Eastern Conference opponent since the spring. On Saturday night, the reigning Supporters’ Shield winner, FC Cincinnati, comes to town for the first time since the 2019 season.

Cincinnati is coming off a tough 2-1 loss at home last weekend to the New England Revolution. Let’s dive into Cincy to see how FC Dallas can pick up points at home against a tough opponent.

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Key Player: Luciano Acosta

Everything starts and ends with Acosta for Cincinnati. The reigning MLS MVP has continued to dominate in 2024. He leads MLS with 11 game-winning goal contributions (6 GW Goals and 5 GW Assists), both of which are the most in MLS. He also leads MLS with 15 assists this year.

Key Matchup: Asier Illarramendi vs Acosta

Having a week off and not playing on the Seattle turf may have been good for the Spanish veteran. If he can limit what Acosta can do around the penalty area, it will give Dallas a good chance to do well in this game.

Availability Report1:

Suspended: Obinna Nwobodo
Out: Corey Baird (hip), Matt Miazga (leg), Nick Hagglund (leg)
Questionable: none
On Loan: none
International duty: Miles Robinson

Quick Notes:

Previous meeting: It has been nearly five years since these two clubs squared off. The last time they met was at Toyota Stadium in 2019, and FC Dallas came away with a 3-1 victory.

No current FCC player has scored on Dallas: No current player on FCC’s roster has ever scored against FC Dallas in their career. Just 10 players on the current Orange and Blue have appeared against Dallas. Most of the games were played by Alvas Powell (9), followed by Corey Baird and DeAndre Yedlin (8).

Away from home: FC Cincinnati has won five straight matches away from home, which is good enough to be tied for fifth best in MLS history. The Orange and Blue are 7-1-1 on the road this season, with the most wins and the best road win percentage in MLS.

Recent form: Cincy doesn’t draw a ton of games in MLS; they mostly win. In their last five, they’ve gone 3-2-0, with the two losses coming at home to New England and Nashville.

Potential Lineup:

Pat Noonan uses a 3-4-3 look that sometimes resembles more of a 5-3-2 formation, depending on how the team needs to defend in a match.

Celentano, Asad, Yedlin, Murphy, Powell, Orellano; Bucha, Pinto, Acosta; Kubo, Kelsy

Keys To Three Points over Cincinnati

  1. Use the heat: If FC Dallas has one thing to its advantage, it is knowing how to play in the Texas summer heat. Temperatures will be near 100 on Saturday night, and the heat index will be north of that mark, too. Cincinnati played in some tough heat last week at home in their loss to New England. After that game, you could tell they weren’t used to that sort of temperature as players looked gassed late in the match (being down a man and a goal didn’t help either).
  2. Find the width: Given the heat, FC Dallas will do well to spread Cincy out along the width of the field. This will make them chase the game and burn more energy. If Dallas can use the channels and find the open space in the counterattack, it will help open up chances for Petar Musa to continue his scoring streak.
  3. Limit Acosta: There is no getting around it, Acosta is a game changer for Cincy. He finds pockets of space around the penalty area better than most players in MLS and can be dangerous on and off the ball. FC Dallas will need to limit his touches, keep pressure on him and force him into turnovers instead of finding pockets of space in the Dallas penalty area.

  1. Note: MLS has a new injury report deadline that doesn’t hit until the Friday before each game. I will put last week’s report in these scouting reports and update where I can ahead of Friday's release from the league. ↩