The summer is nearly over here in Major League Soccer as FC Dallas pushes into the back portion of the schedule. After 20 games, the club sits in a good position to not only make the playoffs, but to also compete once again for a Supporters’ Shield trophy.

FCD does still have games-in-hand going into a new month that they’ll want to take advantage of here. It won’t be easy though as the team will be on the road for a good chunk of the final month of summer.

Philadelphia Union - away - August 5 (6:00 pm)

Up first is a post All-Star game trip to the City of Brotherly Love. The Union are currently six points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The struggles for the Union this season as they went winless in their first eight before winning four in a row. Lately, they’ve won once in their last five matches.

Colorado Rapids - home - August 12 (7:00 pm)

One of two home games this month sees the Rapids come to town. The two sides have not met this season in league play but Dallas did get the better end of the Rapids in US Open Cup play earlier this summer. Going into the start of the month, the Rapids have one win in their last six games.

Sporting Kansas City - away - August 19 (7:30 pm)

We all know going to KC is tricky. Dallas is still looking for their first win there in a couple years but they did get a draw back in week two against Sporting in league play. SKC continues to lead the Western Conference as we begin this month but this could be a pivotal game in the conference race given Dallas’ games-in-hand at the moment.

Houston Dynamo - home - August 23 (8:00 pm)

The lone midweek game is also a rivalry week match with the Dynamo. Games with Houston this season have been pretty tight as the first two matches ended in a draw. Who will take on El Capitan will remain to be seen but this is a game that has to have some level of importance placed on it.

Columbus Crew SC - away - August 26 (6:30 pm)

FC Dallas closes out the month on the road on a quick weekend trip to Ohio. The Crew have been a team hovering around the red line in the Eastern Conference for most of this season. They can score their share of goals but they also can be pretty leaky at times. One interesting thing about them so far is that they don’t draw a lot of games (only two so far in 2017). Either they win pretty handedly or they get beat.

Outlook

We said in July that if FC Dallas could find a way to get at least three wins we’d feel good about things. They did just that despite crashing out of the USOC and losing this last weekend to Vancouver.

This month is fairly tricky with those three road games and that final week that is loaded up with three games in eight days. The home wins are a must in my book but I think getting at least two draws on the road is manageable.

What do you think is a reasonable haul for points in this month?