Last week did not go as planned for FC Dallas.
Eric Quill’s club had a clean path to a season-defining finish and spent the last seven days tripping over it. First was a 2-0 home loss to Columbus last Wednesday, in what was easily the flattest performance of the season out of the club. Then on Saturday was a rough 1-1 draw against lowly Sporting Kansas City, where Petar Musa failed to convert a penalty in stoppage-time to win it.
Two games, one point and with it was a chance at claiming first in the Western Conference.
Saturday night on Decision Day is the fix. The Colorado Rapids visit Toyota Stadium, with Dallas holding the No. 2 seed and the Rapids sitting right on the playoff line. One team is trying to gain momentum for the playoffs, while the other is looking to survive to another day in 2026.
Here’s what we’ll be watching out for on Saturday.
Get last week’s taste out of your mouth
Let’s be honest about the last home game for a moment. Dallas gave up a goal 18 minutes in after controlling the early stages of the game on a goal that went from end to end. The second goal came later after the team was down following a VAR decision that didn’t go their way to tie the game up. That ended Dallas’s run of four straight home wins and was a flat night altogether.
Kansas City last weekend was a bit better, but Dallas was held scoreless in the second half against a team that has won only six games this season. That draw also officially ended any chance of catching Vancouver for first.
So Dallas heads into a best-of-three playoff series with a loss and a draw in its last two games. Nobody needs a third bad result going into mid-November. This needs to be a rebound game in the plainest sense. Score first, defend the counter, and walk into the postseason feeling like the team that beat San Jose 3-0 a couple of weeks ago.
Big D Soccer gives you the why — the tactical breakdowns, the honest assessments, the context that actually helps you understand what you watched on Saturday night.
If you're serious about this club, you should be reading all of it.
Lock up No. 2, don’t just play for it
The math is really simple. Dallas has 55 points and San Jose has 52. St. Louis and Houston can no longer pass Dallas. A win or a draw clinches second place. A loss only matters if San Jose beats Minnesota, in which case the Quakes can leapfrog over Dallas.
Second means facing the seventh seed in Round One. Third means the sixth seed, which is likely LAFC. And Dallas has never won on the road at LAFC. Still, either way, you’re going to host Games 1 and 3 in Frisco.
There’s also the bigger picture. Dallas is chasing its best regular-season finish since 2016, a club-record in goals scored in a single season and seven road wins. That’s a real season. Don’t let it end with a “well, we backed into” kind of a Saturday.
Play to win. Treating a draw as acceptable is how you end up needing help from Minnesota.