FC Dallas have ended another season earlier than anticipated, embarking upon an offseason lamenting a dip of form at the wrong time.
This season wasn't quite as dramatic as 2017, when the club went from midseason Supporters' Shield contenders to missing the playoffs completely, but that doesn't make 2018 feel any better. FCD ended the regular season with three straight losses as a lack of consistent goalscoring caught up with them.
That trend continued into the Knockout Round as Dallas fell 2-1 to the Portland Timbers at home on Wednesday, after being a man up from the 58th minute on. Their goal came deep into second-half stoppage time when center back Matt Hedges poked home following a cross.
Sensing the issue during the season, FCD acquired striker Dom Badji from the Colorado Rapids in July, but he didn't hit the ground sprinting once he moved south. Badji scored two goals in nine games and was held off the scoresheet in the loss to the Timbers. It's still early in his Dallas career, and he'll be judged closer next year than this after a full preseason and months of settling in, but the striker problem isn't a new malady for the club.
This season, the team's leading scorers were Maxi Urruti, who spent much time playing as a No. 10 than a striker once the team acquired Badji, and Roland Lamah, a winger, who both scored eight goals. Their leading goalscorer(s) had fewer goals than the leader of all others MLS clubs bar the Rapids, who traded their leading scorer, Badji, midseason to Dallas. (Badji still ended the season atop the Rapids' goal chart with seven.)
It raises the question: when was the last time the club had a reliable, out-and-out goalscorer?
The club has gone nine years since a single player scored 15 or more goals, when Jeff Cunningham netted 17 in 2009. The season before Cunningham's 17, Kenny Cooper notched 18. Just once in the same timeframe has a player scored double-digits in consecutive years, when Blas Perez netted 11 goals in both 2013 and 2014.
Under Oscar Pareja, the team has had an egalitarian philosophy to goalscoring, where wingers are expected to be as likely to score as strikers. But Michael Barrios, Lamah and Santiago Mosquera went cold down the stretch. There were only two goals scored between the trio in the team's final seven regular season games.
But there's hope for 2019. Badji produced his best goal scoring season in 2018, with nine goals between Dallas and Colorado in 1,963 minutes. His style jives perfectly with Pareja's tactical ethos and highly rated creative midfielder Pablo Aranguiz was brought in as Mauro Diaz's long-term replacement.
