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Agreement Preview: Whitecaps look like a revitalized FC Dallas

The Whitecaps in Vancouver will aim to continue their strong start to the season in Texas because they compete against FC Dallas in the Toyota Stadium.

Los Toros Some significant changes made in 2025, starting with Eric Quill as head coach. The 47-year-old American is a former professional and Dallas Burn player, who was training Dallas' second team for a USL League championship in 2019. Then Quill made a stopover in Columbus as part of Caleb Porter's coaching staff before returning to the Usl. Last year, Quill New Mexico United trained for a historic season in the Usl Championship and set a record for a team with one season. This performance was enough to secure coaching position in Dallas for 2025 after Nico Estévez was released into half last season.

Quill after a 2-1 win against Houston on the opening day.

Early reviews of Quill as a trainer in MLS were positive. Quill's style can be described as aggressive and directly, and he explains that he is looking for his teams to score goals in as few passes as possible. Quill also offers a presence and accountability that was always missing from Estévez.

Last weekend, FC Dallas dramatically led the lead with 1-0 against the Chicago Fire at home and intervened three times after the 80th minute for the first loss of the MLS season. After the episode, Quill took responsibility for the loss and explained that he could have made better decisions to find out the match. This accountability obligation seems to be a long way in Dallas, as it has been a problem in recent years to find identity in the squad and to shop by the players.

When FC Dallas looked at the squad, he made one of the greatest splashes of the low season and acquired Luciano Acosta from FC Cincinnati. The dynamic attacking midfielder achieved 57 g+A with Cincinnati in his last two seasons and was the MVP of the league in 2023 as part of her followers.

Luciano Acosta

In addition to Acosta, Dallas Anderson Julio from Real Salt Lake, Lalas Abubakar by Colorado Rapids and Léo Chú from Seattle added in an exchange against Jesus Ferreira. These additions complement an existing core of Maarten Paes in the goal, Sebastian Lletget in the central midfield and the name Petar Musa, who scored 16 goals last season and has already scored 2 goals and two templates this year.

Petar Musa

When the whitecaps turn things over to Vancouver and achieve one of their greatest results in Franchise history and displace Monterrey from the Concacaf Champions Cup. You will still be without Ryan Gauld and Sam Adekugbe, although Jayden Nelson may be back in the squad, which is good news for a team that has played many games and has already made a lot of trips this year.

The trip from Torreón to Dallas is not big in more good news, and Jesper Sørensen had a rotation against Monterrey during the week. I would imagine that Yohei Takaoka, Mathias Laborda and Brian White will all be back in the starting place for this match, and maybe it is time that Sebastian Berhalter gets a break in the central midfield because he looked a bit exhausted in Mexico. This could mean a start for JC Ngando or Ralph Priso in his place.

Brian White

With regard to the tactics, it is pretty clear that Dallas can play without a ball. So I can imagine that Vancouver will be happy to hold the possession and to break down Dallas methodically. The Toros have already admitted 7 goals against the goals in 3 games, so there are certainly ways to uncover the backline. Vancouver goes in the other direction and must be careful in the preparation of Julio, Acosta and Musa, which can certainly attack dangerously in space when the white caps are caught to overload the Dallas area.

All in all, I like what this FC Dallas team seems to build, but they are still in the process quite early. Likewise, the defensive game or the lack of deficiency was also. In view of this, I will predict the whitecaps that maintain the good times with a 2-1 win.