FC Dallas vs. RSL preview interview: Three Questions with Big D Soccer

Drew Epperley of FC Dallas-centric blog Big D Soccer took some time today and answered some of our most pressing questions ahead of tomorrow’s match.

Topics range from what we can expect from FC Dallas to some words that might ring true about their team potentially selling a young, promising player to a Mexican team.

1. It seems that FC Dallas is in a pretty reasonable spot in the standings — but it's been a relatively quiet rise from our perspective. What's propelling the team?

The strong start to the year has really been an extension of last season out of this group. A lot of the core group stuck around for this season and Oscar Pareja was able to add a couple good pieces to the mix to help improve the team. The team has been able to do very well at home this season, which has played a big part in them gobbling up the points that they have earned so far. They also have been able to get a few good road wins (though they do get overshadowed by the blowout losses they also picked up on the road).

For the most part, it really though has been building on what the team was able to do last season in getting to the conference finals. The team has a hunger and a drive to get back there and to a MLS Cup this season that shows off well in training and in games.

2. Goalscoring for FC Dallas seems pretty spread out — there's not one player out there dominating teams on their own. Does that simply mean you have a good set of options?

Yeah, it is a good thing and a bad thing that the team is so diverse in their goal scorers. Good in the way that any one can step up in any given game and contribute from the defenders in the back to those up front. But the opposite of that is that they don't have a clear go-to scorer right now as guys like Maxi Urruti are ice cold in the scoring department and Fabian Castillo isn't lighting up defenses like he was a year ago. The club still needs that one guy they can count on in scoring goals to really help them get over the hump this season.

3. We're a team that's also had experience in the past few years in selling young, exciting players to Mexican teams. Is there worry among the fanbase that you're losing someone you shouldn't be in Zendejas?

Right now, not really. Fans here know that the crops of academy players is really deep at the moment and most are more eager to see them get their chances. FCD's U-16 and U-18 teams are crazy good this season and probably have a hand full of potential HGPs in them as well that I would imagine most fans are more concerned with the team being able to keep foreign teams away from right now than anything else.

Losing Zendejas isn't great in terms of seeing a good young player go but in terms of business it makes sense when you really look at how little he has played here and what the club is able to get in return.

Predicted lineup

Chris Seitz, Ryan Hollingshead, Matt Hedges, Walker Zimmerman, Maynor Figueroa, Carlos Gruezo, Kellyn Acosta, Fabian Castillo, Mauro Diaz, Michael Barrios, Maxi Urruti