A critical week ahead for FC Dallas
What's important around team (Illarramendi, Pomykal, defense) as two teams getting desperate for a “W” meet in a Texas derby
You can’t call Saturday’s All-Texas clash in the state capital a must-win for either side; as everyone knows, the MLS way keeps everyone playoff relevant well into the season. What you can say about FC Dallas’ trip to meet Austin FC this week is this:
It’s a “must play better.”
That is, the true imperative for Nico Estévez’s side as they zip down on the short 40-minute flight is to come away feeling better about things. A positive result would certainly help. A win would be super helpful in assuaging the mounting concerns of a 1-3-0 team, but even a draw would likely quench the worst of the hunger pains. It’s even possible that in a loss we could see enough to tamp down some of ongoing worries. That scenario, admittedly, is a pretty narrow needle to thread.
Again, it’s all about a better performance. A performance that leaves the players feeling like things are getting sorted and that creates enough warm-and-fuzzies so supporters can believe things are moving in a good direction, at very least.
Here’s what to know about the week ahead for FCD as the team comes off an international break, about to face an Austin team that is seriously on the skids, one of just three winless teams (out of 29) in MLS this year:
Asier Illarramendi expected back
The sharps knew Spanish midfielder Asier Illarramendi would be important to this year’s proceedings. Did everyone know how important? Maybe.
Either way, we damn sure do now.
Because this FCD version clearly doesn’t function well without him.
Illarramendi’s particular skill set – his press breaking in possession, his ability to stitch together the back line and the front line and his ability to break opposition lines with incisive passing – helped FCD click off a crowd-pleasing 23 shots in the season opener. And that was without its top two attackers, Jesus Ferreira and Petar Musa. “Joy be, let the sunshine in!” proclaimed the FCD faithful.
Then came the rains, figuratively speaking.
Without Illarramendi for most of the subsequent minutes since Week 1, Dallas’ attack has suffered mightily; the team has averaged just 12 shots in three matches since. Which is even below last year’s concerning total.
With sufficient rest, Illarra is expected back this week.
Front line chemistry should improve
With an extra week for Musa and Ferreira to work together — and maybe to pal around some, grab a chopped beef sandwich, watch Netflix, exchange ideas on America’s ongoing foreign and domestic affairs, whatever gets them onto some shared wavelengths — perhaps they can link up a little more at Q2 Stadium on Saturday. Because the connections just aren’t happening.
No need to dwell on this one (and all the sidebars around it) other than to say: if FCD is going to arrest the early season backslide, they’ll need more from these two individually and as a tandem.
The defense must improve
Illarramendi’s ability to read the game and eliminate fires before they flame up is probably the most under-appreciated aspect in the savvy midfield veteran’s game. Even with his return, however, other elements of FCD’s defense – the very nuts and bolts of defending, if we’re honest – simply must improve.
Conceding 8 goals in 4 games is a rate that no team can withstand. In fact, no club anywhere near that rate will make the playoffs.
So what, exactly, needs to improve? Marking insde the penalty area, cross prevention, organizing on second-phase of restarts, coordination of the high press, attention to passing lanes through the midfield and, finally, the simple math of getting numbers behind the ball, which we talked about last week. Yes, all that. Probably even more.
Getting Marco Farfan back will help; one of the team’s top defenders over the last two years hasn’t played a minute in 2024. (He’s a natural left back, but did play as a left-sided center back for LAFC before the 2022 trade brought him to Texas.)
Illarramendi will help, but everyone has to do their part a little better.
Paxton Pomykal’s immediate future
(EDIT: 2:46 p.m., Tuesday: Bad news. The worst, really. Pomykal will undergo season ending knee surgery, the team has reported. You have to feel for the guy, a team leader and quite a good fellow, too.)
Sebastian Lletget has been good for two matches now. In fact, he’s probably the one player we could circle who has been something above “average.” (We could label several as average, but there are also several who would fall below even that.)
Lletget’s emergence as a solid midfield citizen has helped mitigate Paxton Pomykal’s ongoing absence. But that doesn’t mean Pomykal’s latest injury struggle isn’t a giant bummer – and probably a big dent in the ongoing plans around Toyota Stadium.
We should find out more this week about the 24 year old midfield workhorse. Unfortunately, the potential prognosis reports would seem to range from “not great” to “downright awful.”
Any deeper dives into the larger impact on 2024 will have to wait; no need to speculate further now in the absence of solid information.
Copa Tejas on the line
This is the first meeting between any of the three MLS clubs (FCD, Austin and Houston) that compete each year for Copa Tejas, the supporter-created shield presented to the best of the Texas top tier bunch.
FC Dallas got hands on the first shield awarded in 2021, but it’s been in the Austin trophy case for the two subsequent seasons.
The team’s schedule
After getting Sunday off, the team was back on Field 1 of the Toyota Training Center Monday. They’ll train daily and then leave for Austin after Friday’s training.