Story Lines – FC Dallas
Carry the Momemtum: FC Dallas heads to Kansas City with some momemtum on their side. The club earned a 3-2 comeback win over high-flying Portland Timbers Thursday night despite conceding an early goal. It was the first time FCD won at home after trailing at halftime since March of 2023 when Dallas came back to defeat Sporting Kansas City, coincindentally. Thursday night’s game featured yet another multi-goal performance under interim head coach Peter Luccin’s team. Since he took charge, Dallas is averaging 2.4 goals per game (12 in five games) after only scoring 18 times in the 16 games prior. Dallas will look to further improve on that tally against an SKC team that’s allowed 46 goals so far this year, second most in MLS.
Rely on the Moose: Forward Petar Musa has been a near-constant bright spot in an otherwise tough season. The Croatian striker scored his 10th goal of the campaign Thursday night, becoming the seventh player in Dallas history to reach double-digit goals in his first season with the club. Musa’s consistent, precise finishing has added a new dimension to Dallas’ attack, which is exactly what the club was hoping for when it signed him from SL Benfica for a club-record fee in the offseason. It’s pretty simple, feed The Moose and he will score. If Dallas can can provide Musa with consistent chances, he’ll make opponents pay. And that’s exactly what he and the team will need to do at Children’s Mercy Park this Sunday.
Two-Game Stand:Â Sunday’s match is the first of two back-to-back matches between FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park. The clubs face off in MLS play Sunday before rematching in the quartarfinals of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup three days later on Wednesday, July 10. That adds an interesting wrinkle to Sunday’s league meeting: with just a few days’ rest between matches, do the teams actually put higher priority on the second game in terms of lineup rotation? There’s certainly a good argument for it. A victory in the quarterfinal means you’re just two more wins away from a major trophy. And with both clubs near the wrong end of the Western Conference in MLS play, a deep Cup Run looks sweeter and sweeter. The only people who can answer that are FCD interim head coach Peter Luccin and longtime SKC head coach Peter Vermes. Either way, there’s a lot riding on the next few days for both these teams.
Sporting Kansas City and FC Dallas last met on May 31, 2023 as Daniel Salloi scored the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory at Children’s Mercy Park. Salloi has eight career goals against Dallas — his most against any MLS opponent and the most by any Sporting player in the all-time series — including tallies in both of the match-ups last year.
After not playing for more than a year, the two MLS charter clubs will now go head-to-head twice in short succession with Sunday’s MLS regular season encounter followed by a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal date on Wednesday. The scheduling anomaly marks the first time since 2016 — when Sporting KC and the Vancouver Whitecaps squared off in both MLS and Concacaf Champions League — that the club will take on an opponent twice in the space of four days.
Both teams enter the twin billing on short rest after Fourth of July fixtures. Sporting fell 2-1 at altitude in Colorado on Thursday as club captain Johnny Russell scored the 150th goal of his professional club career. The Scottish skipper now has six goal contributions (four goals, two assists) in his last eight MLS starts and his 60 career regular season goals are second most in club history.
While Sporting succumbed to a 94th-minute penalty after initially holding a 1-0 lead, FC Dallas rallied from 1-0 down for a 3-2 comeback win over Portland on Thursday courtesy of a Timbers own goal in the 87th minute. Goalkeeper Maarten Paes made three saves – and leads the league in that category with 90 saves this season — and Croatian striker Petar Musa scored his team-leading 10th goal of the season. Signed from Benfica on a club-record fee in the offseason, Musa now has five goals in his past four games.
Dallas’ other two Designated Players — Jesus Ferreira and Alan Velasco — are both sidelined with injuries. Coupled with Paxton Pomykal’s season-ending injury, interim head coach Peter Luccin is currently without three of the team’s five highest-paid players as the visitors aim to snap a 12-game winless run (0-9-3) on the road in MLS play dating back to 2023.
Sunday’s showdown will be broadcast on Apple TV for MLS Season Pass subscribers and radio coverage will air on Sports Radio 810 WHB, La Grande 1340 AM and SiriusXM FC with live audio streams available in the Sporting KC App. Pub partners in the Sporting Pub Network will also show all of the action including a watch party at No Other Pub in the Kansas City Power and Light District with food and drink specials for fans.
