After spending most of the summer living out of a suitcase, FC Dallas suddenly looks like a team gathering some serious momentum at exactly the right time.
Three games in seven days. Three wins.
Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Portland Timbers wasn’t nearly as chaotic as the comeback win over Sporting KC last week, or as solid as the midweek win in Minnesota, but it may have showed just how much determination this group has at not settling for just a playoff berth this season.
It wasn’t exactly pretty, and the underlying numbers that we’ll get into tomorrow suggest Portland had its chances. But after months of road games and a brutal stretch in one week, you don’t stress over the lack of style points in this victory.
Let’s dive in.
Running out of gas but still winning
“Now we’ve got a good run of games at home coming at us, and we want to keep chewing up these home points because that’s going to take us further toward our goals. But I’m really proud of the work these guys just put in because they’re dead. They’re dead. It was like a car on its last leg trying to get over the finish line, and they found a way. They found a way to do it, and I’m extremely proud to be their coach.” - Eric Quill on his club after the win
Let’s face it, we’re at the point in the season when you have any sort of schedule congestion, things are going to be asked of you.
On Saturday, Portland asked a few things of this Dallas group that didn’t have Petar Musa in the starting lineup, or Osaze Urhoghide (thanks to a yellow card accumulation suspension), and was playing its third game in seven days.
Having any sort of gas in the tank was impressive enough. This group had just enough to hold off the Timbers, who are really turning into a pesky team under Marti Cifuentes.
I think it is safe to say, this wasn’t the prettiest of wins we’ll see this Dallas team win in 2026. I wouldn’t even classify this one as a gritty performance, either.
This one was more about the club’s determination that we’re seeing at this stage in the season to get the job done and not be satisfied with where they’re at in the standings right now.
The first goal was kind of a point in that for me, because up until that moment when Logan Farrington found his 9th goal of the season, neither side had really done anything worth noting.
And then, boom. A perfect ball from Shaq Moore (who continues to have himself one of his best seasons in his MLS career) over the top to Farrington, who calmly scores another lovely goal.
Farrington continues to prove that he doesn’t really need that much in the penalty area to be dangerous. His first touch is highly underrated and his finishing is starting to be something the US National Team needs to take note of as we move on from this year’s World Cup.
Better response from the defense
I was pretty low on the club’s defensive performance in recent weeks. Yes, we were still picking up points along the way, but the goals were leaking in. This past weeks wasn’t as rbad with the win in Minnesota only seeing one goal given up and Saturday’s win the same. Hell, you could argue Portland’s goal was fluky as it comes in the dying moments of the game.
So what changed from the couple of weeks of giving up goals to only giving up two? Honestly, not a ton. The lineup rotation was still there due to Urhoghide picking up a suspension and the schedule congestion remaining intact.
But for me, it was more of a collective effort across the last two games that stood out on the defensive side. They may have given up possession edges to Portland on Saturday, but the chances the Timbers had (and you could argue the same for Minnesota) were mostly poor in quality.
I’m all for giving up poor quality shots, as long as it translates into something positive on the other end.
One small change midway through the first half that impacted things, was Quill switching Bernard Kamungo from the right wing to the left, with Ran Binyamin going to the right. It was a small change that got the things more compact and limited the Timbers from spreading Dallas out wide with Antony.
The main thing I am curious to see in the final six or so weeks of the regular season is more about how consistent this group can remain. Daniel returning in goal certainly helped a good bit on Saturday. There was a little bit more calmness to how the defensive group played out of the back. Portland kept them under pressure, but not in a way that forced Dallas to chase the game for 90 minutes.
I do still have reservations about how this group can be for the long run, but a win like this does go a long way in quieting those issues for me.
Quick Hits
- Best moment - Toss up between the two goals, but I’d lean on Daniel’s big saves to close out the game.
- Most underrated player (not mentioned above) - Kaick continues to look the part for me as one of the key figures of this club. Saturday’s performance was another notch on the belt for him.
- Player I may be most concerned about after his game - I really don’t know what to make of Santiago Moreno with this group. His best role appears to be off the bench, late in games with Sam Sarver. But as a starter, he struggles to get anything going most of the time. He ended the night with 39 touches and only one chance created. That’s not DP-level quality.
Final thoughts
Style points be damned, am I right? Three straight wins is and should be something to celebrate for this club no matter how ugly the win may have been.
We now move into a couple of weeks with only one game on the calendar to deal with. Dallas needs to keep this momentum up as much as possible and look to close out a perfect month at home. It starts Saturday with Austin, where they can not only pick up a fourth-straight win for the first time in a decade, but lock up Copa Tejas for the year.
