Takeaways from FC Dallas-Tampa Bay in U.S. Open Cup
Maarten Paes is huge as FC Dallas keeps slowly stacking up the positive results
Stop us if you've heard this before about and FC Dallas outing: It wasn't dominant, but it was enough.
FC Dallas survived and advanced into the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals with a 2-1 road win over Tampa Bay of the USL Championship league. Rookie Logan Farrington scored in a second consecutive Open Cup contest, setting up a July date against Sporting Kansas City for a spot in the tournament's final four.
Goalkeeper Maarten Paes was heroic in Wednesday's win, while the team found just enough of an attack to get a passing grade. FC Dallas has now earned a positive result — a win at home and at least a draw on the road — in five of its last six matches. Nico Estevez's men aren't running roughshod over anyone, but they are steadily making progress, digging themselves slowly from an injury-related hole that was threatening to crater the 2024 season and put jobs — player and coaching jobs, that is — in jeopardy.
Here are three takeaways, plus a couple of bonus takes:
Maarten Paes in form
A few weeks ago I head an MLS content creator whom I respect tremendously talk about Paes dropping a smidge in form this year. There are 29 MLS clubs now, and it's hard to keep close tabs on everyone, so I'll just surmise that my man was a little off on that one.
Because Paes is every bit the game-changing shot stopper he was over the last two years. He matched a career high last week with seven saves at Houston, but in all honesty most of those were fairly routine catches on shots from 22-26 yards. The defense in front of him did a commendable job of keeping the volume of shots at those safer distances that night in South Texas.
Paes' night at Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg on the other hand -- that was a tour du force of top level goalkeeping. Tampa Bay, relentlessly pouring on the attacking pressure that would eventually result in 30 shots, simply couldn't push one past FCD's goalkeeper until a late, well taken penalty kick. Paes made one outstanding save after another in a hellishly busy goal area. In addition, he was well positioned to intercept several well hit Rowdies' crosses, which also flew across goal at a high volume. (The Rowdies are to be commended for the committed display of attacking soccer; they kept the ball on the ground, but went vertical at the first opportunity and maintained a fierce tempo throughout.)
It was only thanks to Paes that Tampa didn't score more — which the Rowdies have done recently with some regularity in USL Championship play and in the Open Cup. Along with a big performance in St. Louis earlier this year, Wednesday's show in St. Pete represented Paes' best work this year.
The quality mattered
Tampa Bay did enough attacking for two matches. Maybe two and a half. They mostly pushed up the left side, wearing out the grass around FCD right center back Sebastien Ibeagha and right wingback Herbert Endeley. In the middle, former FCD draft pick Cal Jennings was a man on a mission, and his mission was to run and run and run again, darting in behind the FCD back line at every possible opportunity and squeezing off shots at the slightest of openings.
Tampa Bay certainly matched FCD in effort and commitment to winning and advancing. What the home team couldn't quite match: quality inside the opposition penalty area in the moments that truly mattered.
Even without club record signing Petar Musa (home with his wife following the birth of their child), FCD scored twice from a relatively low volume of scoring chances. Equadorian midfielder Patrickson arrived into a good spot on a clever short corner routine and smashed home the first goal. Logan Farrington supplied the second (and eventual game-winner) after some nifty combination work, starting with Tsiki Ntsabeleng and running through Jesus Ferreira and Endeley before the team's second choice striker put just enough on his left-footed effort to sneak it into the far post.
In a nutshell, that explains how one team got through the Round of 16 and one didn't. Tampa Bay had a good plan and executed it with aggression. The other team was a bit more conservative, but in the end had a little more quality in execution near goal (not to mention that 5 Star night from one of Major League Soccer's top netminders).
It's about to get even busier
Nico Estevez typically uses a standard amount of substitutes, but typically prefers to deploy them a little later than most MLS managers. The numbers reveal as much; FCD is usually near the bottom of the league in terms of average minutes per sub. But the matches are coming fast now. After the smooth cadence of four matches in April (one every Saturday) FCD will have lined up for seven contests in May by the month's end. June is looking similarly packed, including plenty of difficult road matches.
So it was good to see a bit of player rotation in the starting lineup, then even better to see Estevez summon the bench early. And often. He even got one of his center backs off the field, if only for a few minutes. (Truly, Estevez will eventually have to provide a break somewhere along the line for his back line trio of Sam Junqua, Nkosi Tafari and Ibeagha.)
Ferreira's injury (he needed to be replaced in the 28th minute due to, by the club's description, a hamstring contusion) is certainly concerning. But allaying SOME of the concern is this encouraging nugget: on the day the team left for Florida, every rostered player who isn't on long-term injury was in full training with the team. (The long term injured list is Alan Velasco, Geovane Jesus and Paxton Pomykal.)
Paul Arriola, Sebastian Lletget, Liam Fraser, Asier Illarramendi and Ema Twumasi have all missed minutes recently due to injury, but all should be available for selection Saturday against an in-form, top of table Real Salt Lake side.
Little hits
Do not underestimate how much Marco Farfan is doing to contribute currently. His class and professionalism shined Wednesday. Not that he did anything spectacular. But every action, every instance of popping up in the right spot, screamed "smart, composed, veteran who has been in knockout games and wasn't a bit harried by Tampa Bay's press and pressure."
Speaking of popping up in the right places: sometimes I get tired of saying the same things over and over on our broadcast. But if it happens over and over -- well, what are you gonna do? And here's something that happens reliably, on repeat: Illarramendi sniffs out danger and then arrives in the right place just in time to snuff out that little brush fire before it grows into a full fledge wildfire.
Omar Gonzalez doesn't have Tafari's pace of course, but in terms of marshalling the back line and keeping a flow of useful information going to players around him, I can't remember an FC Dallas center back who did it any better.
100 percent on Farfan. I can't remember the exact circumstances but TB had an opportunity at one point on (I think) a cross that if they could have gotten someone free on the back post would have been an easy one. But the guy trying to get there was tied up by Farfan and he just couldn't get past him.
Our goals were few, but cleanly executed. FC Dallas showed they knew what they were doing. Those goals were not sloppy accidents! Farfan continues to be an essential player that makes a huge difference. As for Paes: he was amazing! I had the feeling he was made of rubber the way he hit the pitch, then bounced back up for the next shot. My only knock on the game was how we shifted to defense in the second half. It worked, but I was sure wanting a third goal.