If the win over St. Louis CITY SC a couple of weeks back was the best home performance (and possibly best performance overall) in 2025, the win over the Portland Timbers this past weekend may end up being a close second for FC Dallas.
It wasn't the prettiest game by any stretch, but the win pushes FC Dallas closer to those final playoff spots in the Western Conference. A few weeks back, those spots felt out of reach. Now, they're within the realm of possibilities for this club again.
Let's dive into this win a bit with some key items that I noticed on Saturday night, along with a couple of other thoughts.
Back to basics for the defense
If you all recall, the last time we broke down a game it was a doozy of one. A 4-3 loss to NYCFC, where the defense appeared to have switched off time and time again.
I asked Eric Quill after the Portland match on Saturday what the main difference was that he saw in his club over the last two weeks. For him, it was pretty simple: communication.
“I felt like the goals we gave up against New York were communication errors. So, I challenged the team to focus on the communication piece. I challenged (Sebastien) Ibeagha, Lalas (Abubakar), Osaze (Urhoghide) and Shaq (Moore) to be a unit and talk to each other as guys are running through and running off their back shoulders, because that just helps. It helps so much when you hear that information early and loud, and the honesty of midfielders tracking. Every single position tonight was honest and working there you know what's off. That is powerful when you do that as a unit and everybody together is in sync, everybody's giving 100% across 90 minutes. We were in great positions and were physical and holding our marks, and Collodi was eating up the crosses.”
It was noticable, too. The defense remained compact, limited what the Timbers could do with the ball (and they had a lot of the ball on the night). Michael Collodi stepped up and was big when he needed to be.
