FC Dallas’ offseason roster remodel: it'll be a busy construction zone
A top goalkeeper, quality strikers and talented creators mean FCD is A-OK in front of both goals for ‘25. But the midfield and defense require a lot of attention
Last week I suggested that three pressing questions hung heavy for FC Dallas deciders as they examine the damage from the 2024 scramble, slide into their work boots and heavy gloves, and get busy with the offseason restoration project.
I addressed the first two here, but left the roster conundrums for today, addressing whether the roster improvement effort would be more “retool” or “complete rebuild?”
The answer isn’t simple for a couple of different reasons. First we might need to have an academic argument about what, exactly, “rebuild” means. Second (and related), because the work ahead for team President Dan Hunt and Chief Soccer Officer Andre Zanotta (and the rest of the club’s technical staff) isn’t what we’d usually see here.
Remember: with somewhere north of 16 players in an option year (club choice on whether to retain their rights for 2025) or out of contract altogether, there’s plenty of room to maneuver.
Nailing the top end signings
The ‘24 roster certainly had issues, with quite a few devils found in the roster details. But this much is true – and it’s a vital truth in MLS, where teams that can’t nail the top end signings are generally going nowhere fast: FCD’s top end signings were on point for 2024.
After a few notable Designated Player misses lately (Santiago Mosquera, Bryan Acosta and Franco Jara come immediately to mind) the club’s batting average has improved dramatically on DP signings. Hard to argue that Petar Musa has been anything but a smash hit. In fact, Musa was surely one of the team’s big success stories of ‘24. Yes, they spent a lot of money in February for the big Croatian, a club record $10 million transfer fee, in fact. But productive strikers aren’t cheap. And a guy who can score 16 goals (5th best goal scoring season ever for FCD) for a team that doesn’t make the playoffs checks the box under “big win.”
Alan Velasco and Jesus Ferreira are the team’s other DPs. Velasco’s late season return from a serious knee injury went about as well as anyone could have expected. He was energetic and generally sharp in 5 starts and 3 other appearances off the bench to close the season, contributing 2 goals and 2 assists along the way. In short, he still retains DP value.
While we never saw Ferreira’s top form in a stop-and-start season (due to injuries) it’s hard to argue that a DP deal for a homegrown talent who started not long ago in a World Cup elimination match was somehow a mistake.
The point here: All three Dallas DPs deserve the meaningful designation. Now add in Maarten Paes, the team’s other “high end” signing, an absolute steal at a transfer price of about $1 million. In those four you see a team that looks well stocked at the top of the roster.
So Hunt was 100 percent correct when he said during the team’s season-ending press briefing Tuesday that “there are foundational pieces we should be incredibly excited about in 2025." Indeed. But this is where it gets a little strange.
When you look around at past MLS roster rebuilds, it generally starts with securing the right DPs, the game changers and difference makers who largely drive success in the 29-year-old league. (Sometimes it starts with wiggling out of expensive mistakes attached to ineffective DPs. Look at Chicago, for instance, who were burdened for three long years until this season with the highly underproductive Xherdan Shaqiri.)
In Dallas’ case, the club seems in great shape in front of both goals: they have the creators and goal getters on one end and a Top 5 MLS ‘keeper at the other end. Add in reserve striker Logan Farrington, another of the club’s ‘24 success stories, and that’s a great place to start. It suggests this is more “retool” than “tear it down and start all over.”
But …
There is so much work ahead in a conspicuously hollowed out middle.
The problem: a hollowed out middle
If we narrowed the question to: “Is the back line and midfield a complete rebuild?” the answer would likely be “Yes.” It might even even be a “Hell, yes!”
It’s not that they don’t have some good pieces here, too. But every one of these useful pieces comes with a substantial caveat or qualification.
Take a look at the team’s top midfielders: Asier Illarramendi, Sebastian Lletget, Paxton Pomykal and Paul Arriola, all talented performers and trusted, likable leaders. (Arriola is a winger by trade but we’ll include him here because he’s so versatile, having deployed in ‘24 all across the field, including right back.)
Illarra was outstanding this year (check out the chart below) and hopefully will be back in ‘25. But he’ll be 35 years old in March and Father Time continues to be undefeated. At some point he won’t cover more ground than almost every teammate (which was, impressively, the case in plenty of matches this year). Lletget flourished under interim manager Peter Luccin, but he’s 32. His age wouldn’t be as much of an issue if he was the team’s oldest midfielder. But, as we just discussed, he’s not.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Texas summers are long and hot. And building around a 32-year-old AND a 35-year-old midfielder seems unwise.
It will be great in so many ways if Pomykal can recover and be an impact player once again around Toyota Stadium in 2025. But that’s far from certain, and the team would be wise to develop plenty of cover for a potentially less desirable outcome here.
As the team captain and in terms of his bottom line ‘24 production (5 g / 7 a) Arriola looks fine. Further, his effort and industry were always A+ level. The issue is his $1.5 million base salary. That’s a lot of money in Major League Soccer’s salary capped structure. And there’s the intriguing factor that he’s a California kid, from Chula Vista, just down the road from where expansion franchise San Diego will play in 2025. As such, he might have outsized value for the league’s 30th team, which means FCD could potentially get a generous (hard to pass up) offer.
From there, the list of FCD midfielders is mostly a hodgepodge of “some good, some just OK, nothing really special.” That doesn’t mean that Tsiki Ntsabeleng, Ruan, Geovane Jesus, Patrickson Delgado and others don’t have value. It’s just that they all come with their own limitations and/ or caveats, whether that’s about individual skill set, injury concern or price tag. In either case, these guys should mostly look like depth pieces.
That’s an issue because, in terms of depth pieces, FCD is fairly well stocked with academy signings or North Texas SC talent that seem ready to make the MLS jump. It’s not hard to see Nolan Norris, Carl Sainte, Diego Garcia, Anthony Ramirez and others finding time in the first team midfield in 2025. And they would do so at significantly less financial strain on the roster.
So someone might see Angolan international Show Cafumana or Canadian international Liam Fraser as far more experienced options. And they’d be correct. But there are two issues.
First is that salary drag, because experience comes at a price. And then there’s the FC Dallas way of developing players vertically, through the academy and then through its MLS Next Pro side, North Texas SC. The organization lost its way in that critical initiative in ‘24, when FCD homegrown signings recorded fewer games, starts and minutes than in any year since 2013. Hunt and Zanotta both noted how development was in the club’s DNA, and that it needs to be better about integrating the younger talent in ‘25.
The money saved from better utilization of less expensive up-and-comers could be critical because of this: the back line definitely needs significant offseason attention, probably in terms of experienced (read: not cheap) internationals. That’s how it looks when you go from 3rd best in MLS in 2023 in goals conceded to 19th this year. Zanotta confirmed Tuesday that the back line would be the main area of offseason emphasis.
Sebastien Ibeagha, the team’s most consistent defender this year, will be 33 when the club kicks off again in February. Omar Gonzalez was excellent every time called upon in ‘24, but he’s 36 now. He was well worth the money in 10 solid starts, but if he does return it seems unlikely he’d see an increase in that limited playing time.
Who knows about Nkosi Tafari, who clearly has high upside in terms of talent, but who has made costly mistakes and has now fallen out of favor with three different FC Dallas managers. For 2025 he could be a trusted, valuable starter. Or he could be a somewhat expensive 3rd or 4th choice at center back. Shrug emoji.
Left back Marco Farfan remains a solid roster piece at a reasonable price who comes without any asterisks or qualifiers. And that’s notable because FCD just doesn’t have enough of those in midfield or in defense. (And hopefully we won’t see Farfan, among the league’s top left backs when it comes to defending, filling in as a makeshift center back again in ‘25.)
A roster remodel like any unseen in … 20 years?
As the team left the field after the Decision Day win over Sporting Kansas City, the awareness seemed palpable that several FCD men had seen their last minutes at the club. Barring a big salary restructure, it’s difficult to see Eugene Ansah or Dante Sealy returning. Jimmy Maurer, now 36, seems likely to begin his post-playing days. There are big decisions to be made on part-time starters such as Ema Twumasi and Sam Junqua. And any player occupying (unofficially) the 22nd through 28th roster spots could potentially be thanked and released.
So there it is. You can call it a retool. Or you can call it an extensive rebuild around a solid framework, akin to a major house remodel, where you strip it down to the studs.
I’m not sure you’d be wrong either way.
This much seems certain (and this isn’t even talking about the big coaching decision ahead): the roster restructure is likely to be the most extensive for FCD in at least 10 years, if not the last 20 years.
Steve, I have the same questions about Tafari. The talent is undeniable but he has been benched multiple times and has not become the consistent defender this team desperately needs. One more year? Or do you see what value he has to some team rebuilding?