I thought I could spend time today going back through yet another disappointing game for FC Dallas with my usual breakdown, but honestly, I don’t have it in me.

This has been a long, difficult season to watch as a reporter and as a fan of the club. Following their loss on Wednesday night to the San Jose Earthquakes (easily the worst team in the league when you look at the standings, their defense and everything with that squad), I couldn’t help but feel that breakdown another road loss on the season just didn’t matter.

Sure, FC Dallas had some moments on Wednesday night that looked good. Alan Velasco’s goal before halftime gave us all some glimmer of hope that this team may actually pull off some surprises here late in the season, after all. But, as we all know, this defensive side of the team isn’t anything like what we’ve seen in recent years. They’ve had issues stopping good teams, bad teams and teams that had no business getting easy chances on them, like San Jose.

So, what now?

Well, for starters, we have two more games, which almost feels cruel in some ways. Sunday in Portland could have been a good chance to make Decision Day count, but now we’ll see Dallas go there and probably struggle against one of the better-attacking squads in MLS.

After that, we get another week off thanks to FIFA before Decision Day against Sporting Kansas City, a team like FC Dallas, which has already been eliminated from playoff contention.

Is there any drama for that one? Nope. Both teams will basically have players playing 90 minutes for their 2025 contracts, so I suppose that is something.

I’ll still have my usual coverage of these two games, even if they have lost some of their value to us.

A longer offseason

The offseason is actually going to be a long one, folks. FC Dallas will have roughly a month and a half to decide on a slew of roster moves. That will barely get us to Thanksgiving, as we’ll then have another two months or so before preseason camp begins.

I won’t discuss those roster moves here today. That will certainly come in the upcoming weeks as we look at the roster, the moves we think the club should make, the ones we hope they make, plus our annual breakdown of the players’ season stats and how the roster construction could go for 2025.

My gut tells me we’re in for a lot of changes this winter, too—not just from the player side of things but also on the coach's bench. We know there is a looming decision for the club regarding Peter Luccin and whether he did enough to earn the full-time position (even with the recent two losses, I think he did, but I’ll get into that later).

At least North Texas SC is interesting

Yeah, I do hope to spend a little more time with FC Dallas’ second team, North Texas SC, over the next few weeks as they begin their MLS Next Pro playoff journey. They’ve already clinched the top seed overall in the playoffs and have a chance to host the title game at Toyota Stadium, should they make it that far.

MLS Next Pro also features an entertaining, albeit somewhat gimmicky, playoff structure. North Texas SC will have the opportunity to select their opponents in the first round of the playoffs.

The 2024 MLS NEXT Pro Playoffs will feature 15 single elimination matches over the course of four consecutive weekends, with three rounds leading to the MLS NEXT Pro Cup.

During each Conference Selection Show, the No. 1-3 seeds will choose their opponent from the No. 5-8 seeds, with the No. 4 seed playing the remaining club. The matchups determined during the Selection Shows will take place in the Conference Quarterfinals the weekend of Oct. 18, with No. 1-4 seeds hosting.

North Texas will select their quarter-final opponent on Tuesday, October 8.

North Texas has home field advantage throughout the playoffs, so hopefully, we will see another title come their way. They are currently 8-0-5 at home this season, and a title for them would certainly be a nice boost for the organization.


Big D Soccer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.