FC Dallas enters a really tough stretch of games and is about to start losing players to international competition. Kicking off this run are three games in eight days, that's a heavy load, starting with last Saturday's game against New York Red Bulls.

Due to injuries and other considerations, FCD Head Coach Luchi Gonzalez went with some light squad rotations against Red Bull. New York, who themselves had a mid-week game, went with heavy squad rotation, starting basically a complete reserve side other than Kaku, Amro Tarek, and Michael Murillo.

Good news for Dallas right? Yeah not so much. Dallas looked flat and got handled pretty easily by New York in the 3-1 loss.

Let's break it down.

Lineups and Tactics

Dallas in a 4-3-3 but with Michael Barrios suspended and Carlos Gruezo questionable, Coach Gonzalez was forced into some changes. Jacori Hayes replaced Gruezo as the 8 in the 4-3-3. To try and get some verticality replacing Barrios, Ryan Hollingshead was used as a right wing. Two players who played well the week before off the bench - Dom Badji and Santiago Mosquera - got starts. Pablo Arnaguiz, who showed well as a 10 last week, got a run as 10 again in this one. John Nelson got the start at left back with the Hollingshead move.

FC Dallas starting XI vs New York Red Bulls. (5-11-19) (FC Dallas / FCD)

When Badji pulled up injured in the 29th minute, Jesus Ferreira came in off the bench. In the 64th minute, Coach Gonzalez went to the only forward he had left, Zdenek Ondrasek for Hollingshead shifting Aranguiz wide right and Ferreira to the hole as the 10. Lastly, Coach Gonzalez rolled the dice on the 18-year-old birthday boy, bringing in Thomas Roberts in for Hayes.

New York has tried a couple of different systems this season but went 4-2-3-1 in this one.

New York Red Bulls starting XI at FC Dallas. (5-11-19) (MLS / MLS)

New York was also forced to make an early sub due to injury, bringing on Sean Davis for Vincent Bezecourt in the 18th minute. Coach Chris Armas swapped out a wing in the 73rd minute, Omir Fernandez for Derrick Etienne. Then brought on an extra defender, usual starter Tim Parker, for Kaku to kill the game off in the 83rd minute.

Goals

1-0 New York Red Bulls goal. 12th minute. After a failed poor clear, NYRB dumps the ball to the circle where an unmarked Cristian Casseres Jr rifles the ball into the net. Jacori Hayes had collapsed to help Reggie Cannon with Andreas Ivan... unsuccessfully, as Ivan finds Casseres. Bryan Acosta is also collapsed down into the box, leaving Pablo Aranguiz with two men to cover.

1-1 FC Dallas Goal. 45+2 minute mark. A really nice lofted cross by Jacori Hayes finds Jesus Ferreira. Ferreira had drifted off his marker's shoulder to create space for himself and finishes the header. This is a really nice, savvy goal from a striker who plays tactically above his age.

2-1 New York Red Bulls goal. 58th minute. A short corner catches everyone off guard, including half of the Red Bulls. No one closes down Michael Murillo outside the box, Reto Ziegler tries but is very late, and Murillo's rocketed shot is redirected by Sean Nealis for the goal as almost everyone else stands around, shocked.

3-1 New York Red Bulls Goal. 85th minute. Red Bulls try to attack quickly and catch Dallas off guard after an FCD chance. Matt Hedges intercepts but is unable to hold it and Red Bull quickly attacks into the space Hedges has vacated. Bryan Acosta and Thomas Roberts try to help Reto Ziegler stifle the attack but neither of them marks Brian White who scores. And no, not offside.

Believe it or not, there are a couple of positives from this game. Let's hit them first.

El Bueno

I actually thought Pablo Aranguiz played really well as a 10 and he carried that over to his play on the right wing later in the game. Man of the Match for me. With 72 touches, he has heavily involved all game. 88% passing as an attacker is pretty good, 3 key passes, 3 crosses, 3 for 5 on long balls, and 3 successful dribbles. One minor complaint, he was dispossessed 4 times. But there is room to grow here. FCD is going to need more of this over the next two months with all the missing players in midfield. His defensive contribution, particularly all the way back in the box is really poor. But he's a 10, what should we expect? Certainly, that's an area that needs improvement but he shouldn't be asked to do heavy defensive lifting.

John Nelson looked dang good for a rookie. 87% passing, 90 touches, 1 shot, 1 key pass, 3 crosses, 1 tackle, 1 intercept, 3 clears, 0 fouls, and 11 recoveries. I don't know what else you would want from a guy? Ok, one thing. I would like him to be just a little bit more... adventurous. I think that's the right word. He doesn't quite have Hollingshead's je ne sais quoi going forward. But otherwise fantastic. FCD could go with him at left back all year if they had to.

It's definitely very big to get the full 90, but we have a very tough schedule coming up. LAFC away and home. But this is a group where we're going to stay positive. We have great footballers. Great coaches. Great staff. We'll be fine. We know we'll be good. - John Nelson

Jacori Hayes was solid in midfield. Not Acosta great, but a better than workmanlike performance as a linking mid. He showed well for teammates, helped maintain possession, and linked play. 80% passing, 3 key passes, 3 dribbles, drew 3 fouls, 2 tackles, 2 clears. Pretty darn good. Overall a positive performance and a really nice assist.

Since I have been quite critical of Zdeněk Ondrášek, I'll give him some love now. This was his best performance since joining FC Dallas. The Cobra brought energy, desire, and effort. It was quite noticeable compared to how flat the team was at that point. 26 minutes, 16 touches, 2 shots, 1 shot on goal (forcing a save), and a key pass. He won a couple of aerials too. It's by no means a spectacular performance, but the contribution was positive and he sure seemed to give a crap at a stage when others did not. So well done Cobra. He was the official Man of the Match.

I'm happy that I played. I would rather sit on the bench and have the three points with the team. I have to score. Everyone is expecting goals from me. The chance was there. Unfortunately it didn't go in, so very disappointing today. We have to keep our heads up and get ready for the next game. - Zdeněk Ondrášek

El Camino del Medio

Statistically speaking, FC Dallas played Luchi-Ball in this one. 65% possession (to 35%), 82% passing accuracy (to 67%), 582 passes (to 312). The possession even made a fair number of shots, 15 is not as much as I might like but it's not terrible. What was on the poor side was efficiency in front of goal, only 5 shots on target. If all this possession is just passing it around in your own end, I'm not sure what it's getting you.

Santiago Mosquera's performance was both good and bad. He was attacking and creating, making chaos in the back line just like he did in the spring. 5 shots for Mosquera, that's terrific. Almost every FCD highlight clip he's involved... But only 1 shot on goal, 3 missed the target, and 1 was blocked. That's not so good. So much upside here still, it's just a question of consistency and final touch quality. He has to be ruthless when finishing... and maybe pass that ball to Cobra.

Reto Ziegler looked a little off to me, he didn't seem to be moving as well as usual. He looked a little limited and static. Is he carrying a knock of some kind? Strangely, despite my slight displeasure with the eye test, statistically, he was probably FCD's best defender. 88 touches, 92% passing, 5 clearances, 2 aerials won, 8 of 13 long balls.

Muy Feo

FC Dallas didn't seem to have the same fight as NY. Did FCD assume they would win when they saw the lineup? Dallas certainly played their same style game, in many ways looking the better team... and yet there seemed to be a lack in urgency, in determination. Maybe I'm just overreacting to the loss but fairly early on in the game, I was thinking how flat FCD looked.

For me it was the first team in this league that I saw, they fight from the first minute. They were very aggressive. At the beginning, we didn't accept it well. We were always second for the ball. And we had big problems with that. - Zdeněk Ondrášek

The collective defensive performance wasn't good. Each of the goals had some sort of Dallas break down and/or failure to cover a man giving NY wide open shots. The Bulls had only 4 shots on goal and 3 of them went in. Most of the failures occurred when midfielders were checking back in defensive positions and ether made the wrong read, wrong rotation, or just got caught flat-footed. Coach Gonzalez will need to make some fast fixes or it could be a long summer.

Matt Hedges struggled with his passing in this one. He's been so much better passing this year. 91 touches but only 80% passing, that's fairly low for him. 2 for 9 on long balls, ouch. 8 Aerials won is a beast like performance though. 2 intercepts, 4 clearances.

The Ryan Hollingshead as a right-wing experiment was pretty much a failure. The idea was for Hollingshead to provide some Barrios like verticality and get behind that back line. That didn't happen at all. It was clear about 20 minutes in that Hollingshead couldn't get in behind his defender, Kyle Duncan. Duncan didn't do squat himself with the ball, but he completely shut down Hollingshead defensively.

Asking Bryan Acosta to play as a 6 was a mistake in my book. Hayes was clearly playing as the 8 with Acosta playing the holding role. Acosta was the one dropping between the center backs in the build-out and dropping into the box defensively. That latter part didn't go well, Acosta often overcompressed down. But most importantly, playing as a 6 takes away Acosta's best skill, that of filling in just behind the attacking line. Think back to the amazing goals he's scored from just outside the box on the drop back passes or recovering loose balls. He was heavily involved against NYRB with 92 touches, but only 78% passing - Edwin Cerrillo averages 91% on the season, Carlos Gruezo 89% in this role - and much of that was from his 7 of 17 long balls. He too often tried to bypass Hayes and Aranguiz to seek out Mosquera and Hollingshead. You can see from his chart, all his passing action is from deep and mostly played long and wide.

Bryan Acosta passing chart against New York Red Bulls. (5-11-19) (MLS / MLS)

Obviously, the multiple injuries are a serious negative. Santi Mosquera is the most troubling as he was taken to the hospital. FCD was out of subs and had to play a man down after Mosquera went off. Usually, the swelling will need to go down some before an MRI can be done. So stay tuned for updates when the club releases them. Dom Badji also left early with some sort of back or rib problem. Again no word yet from the club. Lastly, something may have happened with Jesse Gonzalez's arm/hand/wrist. He stayed in the game after the trainers looked at him, but he was holding his arm at a funny position the rest of the game and went to the locker room pretty quickly.

Santiago Mosquera's Instagram post after the game vs New York Red Bulls. (5-11-19) (Santaigo Mosquera)

Next Game

FC Dallas has a Thursday/Sunday, home and away set with the best team in MLS, Los Angeles Football Club. LAFC has lost only one game all year and has a +21 goal difference.

This is going to be an extraordinarily tough two games for FCD. It will be interesting to see if Coach Gonzalez goes heavy squad rotation and plays a bunch of kids in LA on Thursday to focus on Sunday.

Thursday game in LA, 9 pm CT on ESPN2. Sunday back in Dallas, 2 pm CT on TXA 21.