FC Dallas hosted the LA Galaxy on Saturday afternoon but unfortunately for the attendance, Hollywood FC was missing their biggest star Zlatan Ibrahimovic who did not travel.

In fact, LA was missing quite a few pieces: Perry Kitchen, Juninho, and probably most importantly Romain Alessandrini. It will be interesting to see how good the Gals are when healthy.

Luchi-Ball was on prime display for the home town side and they earned a solid 2-0 victory. Since there are several other people doing "Takeaways" on FCD games I'm going back to my older good, middle, and bad set up for these posts.

Let's break it down.

Lineups and Tactics

FC Dallas in the 4-3-3 preferred by Head Coach Luchi Gonzalez. With opening day starter Jacori Hayes out for this one with some hamstring tightness, Paxton Pomykal got the start.

FC Dallas XI against LA Galaxy. (3-9-19) (FCD / FC Dallas)

Coach Gonzalez was forced to make a halftime sub after Reggie Cannon injured his ankle. Marquinhos Pedroso came on to play left back and Ryan Hollingshead shifted to right back.

In the 79th minute, Edwin Cerrillo made his MLS debut coming on for Santiago Mosquera. Cerrillo played as an 8 with Pomykal taking Mosquera's left wing position.

Then lastly Pablo Aranguiz came on for Michael Barrios at right wing in the 89th minute.

LA Galaxy played a 4-3-3 as well. Chris Pontius got the start up top in Zlatan's place. This lineup image showing a 4-2-3-1 isn't quite right as I felt like Jonathan dos Santos was a single 6 with Joe Corona, in his MLS debut, playing higher making it 4-3-3.

The announced LA Galaxy XI at FC Dallas. (3-9-19) (LAG / LA Galaxy)

LA brought on the Golden Child Efran Alvarez in the 59th minute for Sebastian "Too" Lletget in a straight swap. Ethan Zubak came on for Emmanuel Boateng in the 75th minute.

Goals

1-0 FC Dallas Goal. 53rd minute. Reto Ziegler converts the PK.

Dallas got the PK on a sequence from a corner when Diego Polenta kicks Matt Hedges in the ribs. I'm sure Polenta was just going for the clear but when the ball is going away from goal that's not a smart foul.

2-0 FC Dallas Goal. 61st minute. Bryan Acosta rips a cracker of a goal in what has to be a nominee for MLS Goal of the Week. Pomykal with some great work and effort to dig the ball out and drop if for the second trailing runner. Badji was the primary run, Barrios the second trailing running in the box, with Acosta coming from deep to fill in behind.

El Bueno

Paxton Pomykal was the clear Man of the Match for me. What a performance. He was everywhere, covering so much ground. Fantastic energy, wonderful skill, aggressive getting forward, and good defense. He basically solved the final third problem FCD has last week. He's always had the tools; the main difference from last season to this one, which probably comes from his US U20 experience under Tab Ramos, is that Pomykal now knows what to do with the ball. His decision making is so much better, his timing is better, he was willing to run at people, and wasn't dispossessed a single time. 85% passing, four key passes, two dribbles, 10/10 in duels, and drew four fouls with only 1 bad touch. He put in some defensive work too with three tackles, one intercept, and one clear. He's not coming out of the lineup if he keeps playing like this.

Paxton Pomykal Man of the Match for me. pic.twitter.com/cak5dZ37U6 — 3rd Degree (@3rdDegreeNet) March 9, 2019

Bryan Acosta is everything we thought he would be. This spring I mentioned he looked like the best long-range shooter on the team and he proved that with the rocket goal. 91% passing (my goodness), three shots, two on target, two key passes, disposed one time, and four tackles. That's a pretty dang good day... in only his second league game with FCD. (Four fouls committed, let's clean that up a little).

Carlos Gruezo also had a phenomenal day. 93% passing on 104 passes! Five for seven on long balls. An astounding 121 touches and dispossessed only one time. Six tackles (six!), three clearances, and one interception.

All three midfielders were dominate and all three could have earned Man of the Match nods.

Luchi-Ball going strong. 64% possession on the day. Some of the national media picked up on the stretch of 59 straight passes, so I'll steal that and mention it again here. 88% passing overall.

The 18-year-old Homegrown Edwin Cerrillo made his MLS debut. Looked comfortable with only one or two "oh crap" moments. He only played 11 minutes but I'm really high on this kid and happy to see him get into the game.

Jesse Gonzalez again passed at a pretty good pace compared to last year at 83%. After the one danger moment in the 1st half, he started hoofing under pressure but that only happened a couple of times in the 2nd half. He mostly tried to pass to his center backs. Let's talk about that save though. Gonzalez remains, dare I say, a world-class shot-stopper. His reaction saves are beyond compare in MLS. This one was a stunner on Alvarez.

We've talked quite a bit about the importance of defensive passing in this system. The FCD collective was pretty good at passing on the day.

Cannon - 96%

Ziegler - 90%

Hedges - 95%

Hollingshead - 80%

Pedroso - 87%

Camino del Medio

Anyone have Hollingshead as the weakest passer of this group? I didn't. He was getting deeper on the overlap this time. That's good.

The battle is on at left back, pending severity of Cannon's injury... Pedroso was good enough that Hollingshead will have to work to keep the left-back spot.

Was the garbage time sub of Pablo Aranguiz an attempt to get him mentally engaged? I talked on the podcast about him being out of sorts in training. I applaud the effort to get him feeling involved.

17,220 announced attendance. Not bad.

Muy Feo

Santiago Mosquera is playing too centrally, this is what's causing him to be ineffective. I think he's overcompensating for the lack of a 10. He should step into the hole from time to time, not constantly. Let's look at his average position below which is smack in the middle and he didn't do that much flank swapping with Barrios. You can see how wide Barrios' average position is. Plus Mosquera's passing chart is covering the entire middle half of the park with not enough wing and final third. And he was dispossessed 4 times. He needs to stay wider so he can go at people. That's his game. He's not a 10 by nature and most certainly not in the system.

FC Dallas average position chart vs LA Galaxy and Santiago Mosquera's passing chart. (3-9-19) (MLS / Whoscored.com)

Dom Badji had a bit of a rough day. The finishing isn't good enough, which he knows, and he got dispossessed a couple of times. But he's also not running a high enough line. Look at this average position above, he's sitting on top of Mosquera and well behind Barrios. He needs to be pushing high. He's clearly lost a little of the confidence he had coming out of the spring. He probably deserves a run of games longer than two, but if he continues much longer Jesus Ferreira - who had a brace in the North Texas game - will get his turn.

Dom Badji rounds the keeper against LA Galaxy, only to miss the shot. (3-9-19) (Craig Marcho (@CMARCHO) / 3rd Degree)

With all the possession I would like to see it result in a few more chances created. It's just not coming together yet in the final third yet. 12 shots, 4 on target (LA had 11 shots) isn't enough at home with dominate possession. I think this will improve with time.

Next Game

FC Dallas travels to Columbus to take on the undefeated Crew. The first big road test for Luchi-Ball. Will the possession game work on the road? 1 p.m. CT on Mar. 16 -- Texas 21.

Oh no. (3-9-19) (Craig Marcho (@CMARCHO) / 3rd Degree)