Sporting Kansas City v FC Dallas: Luccin demands more than just resilience

Peter Luccin was thrilled with FC Dallas’ comeback against the Portland Timbers, but still sees plenty of ways they can improve.

Dallas came out on top from a topsy-turvy match in midweek, winning 3-2.

It saw Dallas bounce back from successive defeats, and they sit 11th in the Western Conference ahead of Sunday’s clash with Sporting Kansas City, who are six points behind in 13th.

Asked what he liked about his team’s performance against the Timbers, Dallas interim boss Luccin said: “Resilience, resilience from the team. That was huge.

“After the first half, we were very passive with nothing offensively. The only thing about the first half that I liked was the compactness of the team. We were compact, but no one making runs, no one even putting more pressure on the ball or playing with the ball.

“The half-time talk, maybe it’s better for me to not say anything. It was a hard talk, but at the same time, we told them to believe.

“We felt that we could score in the second half. The second half we showed character.

“We are in a very hard situation right now in the club and with the team, with so many injuries to very important players.”

Petar Musa got on the scoresheet for Dallas to move into double-figures for the season.

“I am happy with my goals but for me, it’s not about just the goals,” said the striker.

“We want to win every single game and I want to help the team. I’m more focused on winning every game. So if I score I’m happy, but it’s more important that we won.”

Thank you to everyone that made this July 4th a special one. pic.twitter.com/OJMhKvvdlo

— FC Dallas (@FCDallas) July 5, 2024

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Sporting Kansas City – Daniel Salloi

Salloi has scored eight goals in 15 career regular-season matches against Dallas, three more than he has scored against any other opponent. Salloi has six goals in his last six matches against Dallas.

FC Dallas – Petar Musa

Musa has scored five goals in his last three matches, taking his total to 10 in his first 20 MLS games for Dallas. The last player to reach 10 goals faster for Dallas was Carlos Ruiz in 2005 (16 games).

MATCH PREDICTION: SKC WIN

Dallas are winless on the road in the 2024 regular season (D3 L7) with its three road points being the fewest in MLS this season. It is the second time the club has been winless through at least 10 away matches of a season as they failed to win any of their first 11 on the road in 2000.

SKC beat Austin FC 2-0 in their last home game. The win ended a streak of 14 straight home regular-season games of SKC conceding, the second-longest such streak in team history (22 straight from June 2002 to October 2003).

The home side has won each of the last four meetings between Kansas City and Dallas in all competitions. There have been at least three goals scored in each of the last six meetings with both teams scoring in all six.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

SKC – 41.3%

Dallas – 32%

Draw – 26.7%