North Texas SC finished their preseason preparations ahead of the inaugural USL League One season with a 4-0 win over SMU. After FC Dallas pulled off the win over a tricky Colorado Rapids side in the rain, Toyota Stadium emptied out. Those that chose to stay were treated by a solid display of the future of FC Dallas.

Lineups and Tactics

North Texas SC lineup v SMU - 3/23/19

Like Luchi Gonzalez, Eric Quill is lining up in a 4-3-3. NTXSC set up with a single pivot and two eights as Brandon Servania made the switch over from the FC Dallas bench. Arturo Rodriguez and Alfusainey Jatta each played a more attacking role, with Rodriguez operating as the more advanced option.

Leading the line was Ricardo Pepi, who eventually played both wings as well, with Dante Sealy and Oscar Romero.

Marquinhos Pedroso got some time in with the USL squad after he was left out of the 18 in FC Dallas' 2-1 win over Colorado. Coach Quill made a point of stating that Pedroso wanted those reps as he tries to regain last season's form after that core muscle repair.

Brecc Evans took one of two captain's armbands, Jatta also wearing one, and FC Dallas' two first round draft picks made up the rest of the back line, with Kyle Zobeck in goal.

Half time saw the first changes as Carlos Avilez replaced Zobeck in goal, and Bryan Reynolds took over for John Nelson at right back.

Approaching the hour mark, Quill made three further changes. David Rodriguez replaced elder brother Arturo in the 'free 8'-ish spot. Servania was replaced by Bicou Bissainthe at the 6, and a surprisingly quiet Sealy came off for Ronaldo Damus. Damus went up top with Pepi moving to the right wing and Romero flipping to left wing.

The final block of changes came on 73 minutes. Cesar Murillo replaced Pedroso at left back, Hector Montalvo came in at center half for Evans, and Mohamed Sesay replaced Romero. Pepi moved to the left wing with Sesay taking up on the right.

In terms of how this reflects to the league, it's tough to say. Cesar Murillo, Mohamed Sesay and Hector Montalvo are still listed as trialists, as is Anthony Bardon who is currently away for Euro 2020 qualifiers with the Gibraltar national team. The nature of a structured league means that John Nelson and Brandon Servania couldn't simply join from the FC Dallas bench as they did today.

"With our model, you don't know. We'll have a mixture, one weekend it may be four U-19 academy players in the lineup, another it could be four first team players. It's situational, who's in form from the second team, who needs games from the first team, who's looking good from the 19s that needs their shot. There's a pool to choose from and we'll work with the first team staff and academy coaches to put the best lineup out there possible." - Eric Quill

SMU also lined up in a 4-3-3 albeit with a flat midfield trio. When out of possession, Luke Thompson would drop back as a left back and create a back five with Nicky Hernandez becoming an extra midfielder. Their shape was a a little unorthodox going forward too as Gabriel Costa adopted a free role.

Two names FC Dallas fans may remember are academy products Brandon Terwege and Eddie Munjoma. Both players took part in the FCD college camp over the summer to retain their Homegrown rights for MLS.

I didn't keep track of the SMU subs since they were rolling players on and off.

Goals

1-0 North Texas SC. 7th minute. Pedroso plays a shallow cross to Pepi on the edge of the area. Pepi plays a one-two with Jatta before striking low centrally. The keeper goes down to smother it but it somehow evades his grasp and slips through his legs.

2-0 North Texas SC. 20th minute. John Nelson lays a ball off to Pepi on the edge of the box. Pepi turns on Bredeli and places the ball over Makela in the SMU goal. When the team release the highlight package, watch this goal.

3-0 North Texas SC. 43rd minute. A NTX free kick is blocked as far as Callum Montgomery, whose attempt is also blocked. Arturo Rodriguez rushes into the box and curls the ball low around Makela.

4-0 North Texas SC. 88th minute. Pepi turns provider as he finds Sesay in the box with his back to goal, a simple turn and shot across the body of the SMU keeper.

Thoughts and observations

Let's get the most obvious thing out of the way. This team is a lot of fun to watch, just like FC Dallas, the academy teams, the women's team. It's a crime that more people in the Metroplex aren't paying attention to it.

While their position in the league doesn't matter - after all North Texas SC exists to develop players for FC Dallas - it's going to be interesting to see how North Texas SC stack up in this new division. Chattanooga are up first as a team mostly made up of USL Championship players, with McKinney's former Derby County and DC United midfielder Conor Doyle in the side. Against the fellow B teams, you'd expect NTX to dominate based on their preseason. FC Dallas are far ahead of everyone bar Real Salt Lake in terms of developing their own talent, which should reflect against the likes of Orlando CIty B, Lansing Ignite (Chicago Fire) and Forward Madison (Minnesota United).

"I think these guys are ready for game one, I'm ready for game one. We've got this week in front of us. It'll be key for preparation to make sure we put up a good performance on Saturday in front of a home crowd. We've got three games at home to start. We want a fast start, we want to get results quickly and play good soccer. Complete soccer, on both sides of the ball." - Eric Quill

Ricardo Pepi is a machine, with six goals in four preseason games - at 16 years and two months! In addition to a brace and an assist, Pepi also had a third goal disallowed for offside. If he navigates this season injury free, you'll see him make him MLS debut before the year is up. Here he is talking to North Texas SC's Garret Melcer.

With two more goals last night, Ricardo Pepi brought his preseason tally to six goals in four games. Hear his thoughts on his performance 👇 pic.twitter.com/Wtsw2y6SmY — North Texas SC (@northtexasSC) March 24, 2019

David Rodriguez is a name that's only going to get bigger. While his brother Arturo is ahead at present - and he should be with a four year head start - the 16-year-old is among the most talked about prospects at FC Dallas. He's not too dissimilar to Paxton Pomykal in his hybrid 8-10 style, but he also plays the kind of tricky through balls FC Dallas fans fondly remember from Mauro Diaz.

Callum Montgomery and Brecc Evans could be the new Matt Hedges and Walker Zimmerman. Buzz and John have both called Montgomery a Hedges-clone, and it's true. He has an uncanny knack for adopting the same positions defensively. I wasn't sure of John's claim that Evans is a 'Walker Zimmerman sort-of dude' but watching him on set pieces, he's that exact attacking threat.

John Nelson is growing at such a rapid rate it's absurd. In the opening weeks of preseason we saw Luchi Gonzalez pushing the 10th overall draft pick to get forward more, and now he's following exactly what Gonzalez has preached about full backs cutting inside and getting into the box. His set up for Pepi's second goal was exactly that. The only issue he and Marquinhos Pedroso encountered on both sides was getting caught out of position when North Texas lost the ball.

"I thought it was good in spurts but I thought we were in some bad shapes in prevention when the ball turned over. At the higher levels you can't be in a bad prevention shape, when teams counter out they can hurt you, so we'll have to work on that this week and make sure we get that right." - Eric Quill

Ronaldo Damus has improved his football IQ dramatically over the past year, but he's still taking a touch too many. With his pace, it's not too far from watching an early Fabian Castillo. He was up top rather than on the wing against SMU, and to succeed there he's going to have to learn a couple more speeds that full sprint. Right now he's going to get caught offside or watch a heavy touch go to the keeper a lot. He's such a raw talent who FCD really could develop nicely.

Brandon Servania played the defensive midfield spot and got the chance to display one of his real strengths, his distribution. He dominated the midfield whenever he was with Tulsa last year, because few can match his range of passing. He played a couple of 60-yard balls through narrow channels like it was nothing. When David Beckham moved centrally with the LA Galaxy to simply spread the ball around, that's something Servania can do with Mosquera and Barrios racing onto that type of pass. He's dropped behind Edwin Cerrillo in the depth chart but there isn't a lot in it.

Alfusainey Jatta is such a strong presence in terms of how much ground he covers and how hard he fights for the ball, his only issue is going to be yellow card accumulation. He was booked for a rash challenge from behind as soon as the second half began. We've usually seen him play a deeper role but against SMU he was more a traditional 8. He's going far if he can cut that part out of his game.

The USL League One season gets underway next week as North Texas SC host Chattanooga Red Wolves at Toyota Stadium. I would definitely recommend going along to Toyota Stadium for Saturday's 6 PM kick off, or you can catch the game on ESPN+ along with all USL Championship and League One games. Since ESPN are producing content for the league, there will also be highlights packages made available to the club to distribute on their channels.