FC Dallas wingback Dante Sealy: a deeper dive
The eye test shows his assets and liabilities -- but what does the data show?
In three decades as a soccer writer / broadcaster / podcaster I’ve seen and often studied literally hundreds of strikers. And hundreds of wingers or outside midfielders.
Ditto for center backs, midfielders and … well, you get it.
You know what I’m not as familiar with? Wingbacks.
Most of the teams I’ve covered extensively through the years, including a lot of time as a national writer watching over the men’s and women’s national teams, were 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 ride-or-dies.
So when it comes to evaluating wingbacks fairly, with proper attention to framing, nuance, etc., things get a little fuzzy.
That’s where I am with Dante Sealy, FC Dallas’ young-ish left-sided wingback, who for better or worse has a stranglehold on that position for Nico Estévez’s side.
And to further complicate things:
Sealy is reaching a difficult-to-nail down inflection point. See, he’s one of these bright prospects overflowing with raw talent, fast and physical and technically gifted with both feet.
But he just turned 21, not exactly the youngest pup anymore. And he’s already hit one career snag; a two-year run with PSV reserves ended last summer ended with the Dutch club saying, “Thanks, but we’re good … you can head back to Texas.”
He’s been given a huge opportunity this spring, slotted into an MLS starting lineup with the mandate to seize the day, to grab that bad boy and refuse to let go, to make this position his. Which he did initially with a swell preseason and then a game-winning goal to open the FC Dallas season. Even then we saw some flaws, but there was something to grab onto, at least.
Since then … well, not so much.
So we’ve reached that classic inflection point, a place where managers and supporters have found themselves since players were passing and punting those vintage brown leather balls of another day, asking essentially the same question about bright young stars:
When does a guy lose status as “huge prospect with a world of raw talent who is sure to ‘get there,’ ” before atrophying into the decidedly less attractive representation of “another raw talent who, for whatever reason … just never got there?”
What my eye tells me about Sealy
I’ve seen every Sealy kick in MLS going back to 2020. Most of them have been this year, and I’ve said numerous times on our radio broadcasts something like this: “He’s a bit too predictable in the final third; he wants to cut inside to shoot.”
It’s fine to do that, by the way – except for two things:
Sealy hasn’t been particularly effective at it. He looks like the guy who could always create space this way at the youth level – and just cannot let go of the notion that he can pull it off at the next level.
And why is that? For one, defenders simply figure it out.
The book on Sealy now looks like this: “Delay. Be sure you have help, then show Sealy to the inside.” That’s about it.
If he was more of a threat to get around the corner, to dribble the end line and look for the cross or a cut back, he’d be far more effective. So we wait for that to happen, and … it just doesn’t.
FCD’s offense is suffering
The numbers look pretty grim for the FCD attack right now. Which isn’t completely unpredictable considering the injuries to Alan Velasco, Jesus Ferreira, Paxton Pomykal and Geovane Jesus. Also to Asier Illarramendi, who did get back on the field last week, at least.
Still … it’s pretty barren. Currently, FCD has four goals from the run of play in 7 matches. Overall, the team’s 6 goals ranks 28th of 29 teams. Beyond that:
FCD is 26th in xG
No. 22 in shots
No. 25 in shots on target
No. 28 in corner kicks
Last in clear cut chances created (3)
Last in chances created off the counter attack (3)
This most certainly isn’t all on Sealy. Heavens no. There are too many interlocking gremlins and culprits to count.
But this one in particular has been puzzling my puzzler: Has Sealy done enough to mark himself as “game in - game out starter?” I don’t personally think so. But being fair about it – because, again, I’m no wingback whisperer – I wanted to go deeper.
So I started looking at the numbers.
How he compared Saturday to Paul Arriola
FCD’s offense was mostly stuck in the mud last week against Seattle. We went over a lot of it on this tactical and comprehensive breakdown. As I showed, the tactical setup afforded Sealy added opportunity to stay higher up the field, to find space in isolated, 1 v 1 situations.
Arriola, the right-sided wing back, had a little more responsibility for defense, and then for the build-out. So how did they compare in similar minutes played?
How about Sealy vs. other wing backs
It would be impossible to compare the Sealy and Arriola data over the entire season (seven games so far); Arriola played in a different spot in the early matches, as a forward in a 3-4-2-1 setup. Thus, it would skew his attacking numbers, which would create an unfair comparison to Sealy.
So I looked at some other full-time MLS wingbacks. There’s Montreal’s Ruan, the right-sided speedster who sure created problems for Dallas in the Canadian side’s win in Frisco. (When you look at his numbers, remember that Montreal has played 6 of its 7 matches on the road, where it surely didn’t attack as much as it will in subsequent home contests.)
Then there’s Columbus’ Yaw Yeboah and Cincinnati’s Luca Orellano, players who run the wing for coaches who are living and loving their 3-4-3 systems.
You can judge for yourself, but here’s what I see:
A player who looks for goals when he should probably be looking for more assists, more opportunities to be a chance creator. That’s generally the job of a wingback, to stretch defenses and then play provider.
I see a player who needs to gain a firmer understanding of his abilities and limitations. His take-one success (30 percent) is significantly beneath his positional peers.
I see a player whose ongoing inability to make good decisions in the final third is threatening to be his undoing. Which would be a damn shame.
On the other hand, it also suggests a player who does the work defensively — which is something we were saying as early as last year, when Sealy appeared in matches late in the 2023 season. When he gets back and into position, Sealy can definitely DO the defensive work. He’s just one of these attackers who always thinks “offense first,” so he sometimes loses defensive positioning, or is slow to recover into defensive areas.
You could simplify all this by saying, in summation: He’s a guy who probably needs to shoot less, who should look to combine more (and earlier) and cross more.
Which leaves us … well, right about where we started, with Sealy in that awkward in-between stage. He might “get there.” He might not. He would surely look better with a few more force multipliers around him. That’s Ferreira. And Illarramendi.
Sealy will keep getting chances because Estévez simply has too few options right now. Which means the young man has every possible opportunity to grow and adapt and strengthen those weak points. Eventually he’ll figure it out. Or run out of time.
We’ve all seen it happen both ways.
Great dive into Sealy here, really well done, especially those comparisons with other wingbacks -- one of these things is so far not like the others.
Like you, I don't always understand what goes into being a good wingback. I think it's hard to play (and one of the reasons I'm not really wild about a back 3 -- the whole system seems incredibly demanding, particularly for players who aren't at an elite level who've probably spent most of their lives in systems built on a back 4). I also, as has been widely discussed, don't think this roster is built for it.
His peers don't appear to defend to the degree Sealy -- whose defense is talked about as pretty suspect -- does. But maybe that's a function of FCD being on its heels a lot? But the disparity in passes and crosses is eye-opening.