by Cheuk Hei Ho & Jason Poon

Data: American Soccer Analysis

Video: Instat Scout

For years, FC Dallas has been lauded for having one of, if not the best, Academy programs in the United States. Dallas has signed the most Homegrown players in the league history (25), with no slowing down in sight. Despite having such a prolific Academy, it wasn’t until recent years that the club started taking full advantage of this system. And when former Academy Director Luchi Gonzalez took over as the head coach, it was finally go-time for the entire “Play Your Kids” movement. Part of that was by design; who else would know the former Academy players better than Luchi? Part of it was also timing; most of the Academy graduates had spent a significant amount of their formative soccer development years in the Dallas Academy and were ready to make the jump. With Gonzalez at the reign, it only made sense to usher in a youth movement.

When Dallas decides to start five or six of its graduates in MLS this season, it showcases not just its Academy players, but the Academy program as a whole. It says that the FC Dallas Academy is so good, it may be the best way for them to compete. However, playing the kids in real games is different from growing them behind closed doors. It means experimentation. It also means trial and error. It means risk.

Risk doesn’t deter Gonzalez though. He doesn’t just let the the kids play. he wants them to dominate. Under him, FC Dallas average 537 passes per game this season, the 11th most in MLS since 2013. They had never attempted more than 480 passes per game previously and make ~14% more passes per game than they did last year. Gonzalez has revamped Dallas into a possession machine.



The possession dominance hides Dallas’ true identity. Intentionally or not, Gonzalez’s team has relied on the counter-attack to create chances: 4.4% of their shots come from it, the fourth highest among MLS teams since 2016. Only Chicago (2016), Atlanta United (2018), and New York City FC (2019) create more shots from the counter-attack than FC Dallas do. Atlanta United last year were known to break the opponent with the counter while holding the possession at the same time. Michael Cox from ESPN recently characterized Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea as a different breed of the possession teams that uses it to bait the opponent out from the defensive block. Gonzalez may be operating the possession from the same manuel, or he is using it to mask some weaknesses. Either way, Dallas has been able to hide its risky youth experiment with this newfound possession dominance.

POSSESSION AS A LURE

Gonzalez’s basic idea for the build-up is similar even though Dallas has shuffled between a 433 and a 4231; the back-four switches to a back-three when they develop the offense from the back. The third partner of the back-three is either one of the full-backs or the central-midfielders, depending on the situation. The three midfielders have similar responsibilities in the first few games, but now Paxton Pomykal has taken a more advanced position compared to others, hence Dallas’ formation has looked like a 4-2-3-1.

When FC Dallas control the ball, they look to re-initiate the attack through the back line when they encounter any sort of resistance, or no resistance at all: