The 2026 FC Dallas Fan Omnibus
With the new FC Dallas season approaching, I wanted to create a one stop resource for everything a FC Dallas supporter might need. This will include information useful for a brand new fan, experienced Burn supporters, and everyone in between.
Basic FC Dallas Facts
One of Major League Soccer's charter members, the club's official birthday is June 6, 1995. The then Dallas Burn's premier game was April 14th, 1996 against the San Jose Clash (now the San Jose Earthquakes), a shootout victory at the Cotton Bowl.
The Burn moniker lasted until 2005, when the club became FC Dallas in March. August 6th, 2005 marked Dallas' first game at what's now Toyota Stadium, then Pizza Hurt Park, a 2-2 draw to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (now Red Bull New York/New York Red Bulls depending on the year).
The club is owned by Hunt Sports Group, led by Clark and Dan Hunt. The pair are the sons of legendary Dallas sports figure Lamar Hunt. They also own the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. While both Hunt brothers are involved with FC Dallas, Dan is the President and more often seen publicly associated with the club. Clark is Chairman and CEO.
Dallas has not won MLS Cup; they played for it in 2010 losing to the Colorado Rapids at BMO Field in Toronto. Dallas won Supporters' Shield (given to the MLS team with the most overall points) in 2016. They've won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup twice in 1997 and 2016.
Club Legends
Note: This list is not comprehensive, just a general list of names to know to help understand a large swath of FC Dallas history.
Mark Dodd: Selected 53rd overall in the 1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft, Dodd was the club's first ever starting goalkeeper. He was MLS's first ever Goalkeeper of the Year, was MVP of the club's 1997 US Open Cup win, and racked up 15 appearances (or caps) with the US Men's National Team. He retired in 2000 after hand surgery.
Jason Kreis: Dallas' fifth round pick in the Inaugural Draft, Kreis scored the first goal in club history. In 1999 Kreis won MLS MVP, becoming the first American player to do so. Kreis also logged MLS's first ever 15 goal, 15 assist season. Kreis is one of four players tied for the single season FC Dallas goal record, with 18. Dallas traded Kreis to Real Salt Lake in 2004, becoming RSL's first ever player. He retired in 2007.
Oscar Pareja: Pareja joined Dallas in 1998, traded from the New England Revolution for Damian Alvarez. Nicknamed "El Generalito" and "Papi," Pareja played 170 games in midfield for the Burn until his retirement in 2005. Papi joined the Dallas coaching staff upon his retirement, serving twice as an assistant coach. In 2012, the Colorado Rapids named Pareja their head coach. He left Colorado in 2014 to become Dallas' head coach, remaining in that post until the end of the 2018 campaign. Pareja is the current coach of MLS side Orlando City SC.
Kenny Cooper Jr: Another player tied for Dallas' single season goal record, Cooper joined Dallas in 2006 after signing with British giant Manchester United in 2004. In 90 games with Dallas, Cooper scored 40 goals. He also spent time with Portland Timbers, New York Red Bulls, and Seattle Sounders before his retirement. Cooper logged 10 caps with the US Men's National Team, scoring four goals. He's currently a club ambassador for Dallas, often assisting with first team training among other duties. Cooper's father, Kenny Cooper Sr, is a Dallas soccer legend in his own right playing 170 games with the Dallas Tornado of the NASL.
David Ferreira: A Colombian native, Ferreira joined Dallas on loan in 2009 before being purchased in 2010. He played 117 games for the club, earning MVP during the 2010 campaign which saw Dallas make MLS Cup. Ferreira left Dallas after the 2013 season, going to play in his native Colombia. He's the father of Dallas Homegrown star Jesus Ferreira.
Jesus Ferreira: Jesus joined the Dallas academy when David joined Dallas, signing as a homegrown in 2016 and debuting for the first team in 2017. Jesus spent 163 games with the Toros, scoring 53 total goals and is the third of four players tied for the single season goal leaders. Jesus also has 23 caps and 15 goals with the US Men's National Team. Dallas traded Jesus following the 2024 season to the Seattle Sounders, where he currently plays.
Bobby Rhine: Selected 6th overall in the 1999 MLS College Draft by Dallas, Rhine would play 212 games with the Burn. Rhine retired after the 2008 season, becoming the club's Manager of Community Development while also working as the color commentator for the team's TV broadcasts. In 2011, Rhine passed away of a heart attack while on vacation in Florida with his family. He was 35 years old.
Rhine wore #19, a number currently worn by fellow midfielder Paxton Pomykal. The supporter's section at Toyota Stadium is named The Rhine, with the supporters groups paying tribute to Rhine at the 19th minute of every home game. For more on how FC Dallas honors Rhine, check out this section on their website.
Decision Makers
Andre Zanotta: Dallas' Chief Soccer Officer/Sporting Director has been with the club since 2019, when he was named Technical Director. Prior to that Zanotta spent time in his native Brazil working for Gremio and Santos FC. Zanotta assumed his current title ahead of the 2024 season.
Sandro Orlandelli: Orlandelli is the club's Technical Director, hired in 2024. Prior to FC Dallas Orlandelli worked at clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal as well as the Brazilian Football Confederation.
Leo Baldo: Baldo is Dallas' Director of Scouting. He's been with Dallas since 2022 and signed a multi-year extension in 2024. Before Dallas Baldo worked as a scout for MLS clubs Columbus Crew and Orlando City along with historic French side AS Monaco.
Eric Quill: Quill is the ninth full time head coach in the organization's history. He took the job ahead of the 2025 season. Quill played for the club in 2004, playing 23 games for the Burn. As a coach Quill has spent time with Texans SC, the US U-15 and U-19 national teams, and the Columbus Crew. Notably Quill was the first ever head coach of North Texas SC, leading them to the 2019 USL League One Championship while winning the league's coach of the year award. Quill's last stop before his Dallas return was USL Championship side New Mexico United. Quill is entering his second season leading FC Dallas.
Current Stars
Petar Musa: The largest inbound transfer in FC Dallas history, Musa joined Dallas ahead of the 2024 season from Portuguese giant Benfica. Dallas paid $9.7 million up front, with the fee rising to $13 million based on add-ons. The Croatia native is the final player tied for single season regular season goals scored, notching 34 total goals across his first two MLS regular seasons. Musa helped Croatia qualify for the 2026 World Cup this winter, playing in two matches scoring once. Musa wears #9.
Osaze Urhoghide: Dallas' top center back, Urhoghide joined ahead of the 2025 season from Amiens SC of France's second division. The transfer fee is still unknown, save for it being the largest ever spent by the club on a defender. Urhoghide wears #3.
Michael Collodi: A former Dallas academy player, Collodi left Dallas to play college soccer at Columbia University. He left the Lions with the second most career saves in school history (237). Upon graduating, Dallas signed Collodi to a deal with their second team North Texas Soccer Club in 2024. That season Collodi started 27 games for NTSC, winning 17 times with five clean sheets (no goals allowed). NTSC won the 2024 MLS Next Pro Cup, and Collodi the MLS Next Pro Goalkeeper of the Year. All that earned him a Homegrown contract in 2025, before seizing the starting job after incumbent starter Maarten Paes was injured and on international duty. Collodi officially became the 2026 starting keeper after Paes was transferred to Dutch giant Ajax. Collodi wears #30.
How Dallas Plays
Dallas will line up this year in a formation with two different accepted designations: 3-4-3 or 5-2-3. You'll hear Quill refer to it as the latter more often, but they're largely the same. The alignment is the following:
- Three center backs across the back line
- Two wing backs, one on each side
- Two defensive midfielders
- One attacking midfielder
- Two strikers
If you're more a visual learner, here's a representation of how it'll look based on the lineup Dallas used in their last preseason game:
Dallas' set up in this formation has one change from how teams traditionally play. Instead of using two attacking midfielders (Cappis occupies that spot above) they use one and two strikers, where most formations invert the numbers. Part of this is out of necessity: Dallas' personnel fits this setup better especially with Logan Farrington's continued strong play. Farrington plays almost as a hybrid player, with abilities of an attacking midfielder and striker at once. That's part of what makes Dallas' set up work.
The wingbacks are critical to this system's success. They are charged with running forward on offense, back on defense, and knowing when to do each. As they get forward they'll do one of two things: help hit crosses to feed the two strikers or invert to add more numbers into the box for opposing defenders to handle.
Meanwhile on defense both can drop back alongside the center backs, creating a line of five that is hard for opposing attackers to penetrate. They can also send one forward and one back, creating back line of four at times. For example: if Herman Johansson on the right goes forward Bernard Kamungo could drop back. That would put him at left fullback, pushing Shaq Moore to right fullback making Urhoghide and Sebastien Ibeagha a traditional center back pairing.
There's a lot of flexibility in this formation as you can see just by how the wingback positioning changes the style. Last year Dallas played this formation more defensively, emphasizing goal prevention while letting Musa and Farrington create enough offense to suffice. This year Dallas will look for more balanced play, wanting to generate more offense while playing strong defense.
How To Consume FC Dallas Games
Every FC Dallas regular season MLS game will be broadcast on Apple TV this season. This is the first year Apple TV subscribers will not need to purchase MLS Season Pass to consume MLS games. If you have access to Apple TV you'll be able to see Dallas games. As of this writing Dallas doesn't have any regular season games on traditional linear TV. For more information and/or to sign up, visit here.
As of this writing there's a bundle deal which allows for access to both Apple TV and Peacock, which could be beneficial if you're a fan of a Premier League club as Peacock has the rights to certain EPL games.
Dallas will participate in Leagues Cup this year, with those match dates and times to be announced at a later date. All Leagues Cup matches will also be on Apple TV.
FC Dallas offers English language audio broadcasts for every game. Audio only is available via the FC Dallas app. The club also has a second screen experience called "The Burncast" on YouTube where fans can hear the broadcast call along with live video of the commentators at Toyota Stadium. Both the FC Dallas app and The Burncast are available for free.
When Dallas plays at home, fans can select the home radio option within the game's broadcast options for no added cost. Doing so will replace the Apple TV commentary team with FC Dallas' announcers synced to the Apple video broadcast. Here's a link on how to select the home radio option from 2023.
As well FC Dallas offers the FC Dallas Radio Network podcast feed, available for free. There's two regular programming offerings on the feed: the FC Dallas Post Game Show and the FC Dallas Agenda. The Post Game Show is a copy of the live PGS done after every game, and is traditionally available on demand the day after the game.
The FC Dallas Agenda is the club's weekly podcast. It features game reviews/previews, interviews with club personnel, and much more. During the season episodes traditionally drop on Wednesday morning.
FC Dallas People/Outlets To Follow
Local
Garrett Melcer: FC Dallas' Senior Content Manager, Garrett covers the club for the official website. He's also one third of the FC Dallas Agenda, and appears on the club's English language audio broadcast for home games. He can be found on all socials @GarrettMelcer.
Ryan Figert: FC Dallas' Social Media Coordinator, Ryan is the club's English language play by play commentator and one third of the FC Dallas Agenda. You can find him on all socials @ryanfigert.
Steve Davis: FC Dallas' English language color commentator, Steve is a long time fixture in the Dallas soccer community. He's done television for the club, covered the club for outlets such as the Dallas Morning News, and more. You can find him on Twitter @SteveDavis90 and BlueSky @stevedavis.
3rd Degree: The longest tenure FC Dallas site, 3rd Degree was founded in 1997 by Buzz Carrick. They publish a weekly podcast, preview and review games, and much much more. One of their calling cards is great coverage of the FC Dallas academy. You can find all of their relevant links here.
Big D Soccer: Another great media resource, Big D Soccer was founded in and around 2009. The current editor in chief is Drew Epperly, who helped migrate the site to independence after Vox Media made the terrible decision to choke off their MLS sites. He mixes in game coverage with original reporting and analysis along with guest features. Visit the website here, with all the relevant socials linked on the site's top left.
Afterburn Soccer: A blog and live podcast run by Nathan Hill. They do live episodes every Monday night alongside written content. Their content can be found here.
FC Dallas Nation: A division of Dallas Sports Nation, Sam Nabors helms coverage of FC Dallas for the site. Their coverage can be found here.
Abraham Nudelstejer: Abraham covers soccer in general for the Dallas Morning News, along with other sporting events in Spanish. His work and socials can be found here.
National
Tom Bogert: Also known informally as "Tommy Scoops," Bogert is MLS' premier insider who currently works for the Athletic. He's the primary source for MLS transfer reporting. He's on all social medias @tombogert, including BlueSky.
Matt Doyle: Also known as the "Armchair Analyst," Doyle was MLSSoccer.com's lead analyst for over a decade. He was let go from the site earlier this year, joining the independent outlet Soccerwise along with starting his own website Tactics Free Zone. When it comes to MLS analysis and opinion making, Doyle is the gold standard.
Backheeled: A fully independent American soccer outlet, Backheeled covers the USL and USMNT in addition to MLS. It's a great one stop shop for all thing soccer in the US. Most of their content is behind a paywall which starts at $50/year. You can find their site here.
Pablo Mauer: The best feature writer in American soccer right now, Mauer currently works for the US arm of the Guardian. He's also an ex-pat of the main MLS Soccer website who spent time at other outlets as well. He also digs cars if that's your thing. You can find him on BlueSky here.
Charles Boehm: A columnist for MLS's site who covers all things within the league. A do it all writer who does news as well as features, Boehm is a great follow if you want in depth looks at some of the league's biggest news stories. Find him on BlueSky here.
Arman Kafai: Arman used to work for FC Dallas' data department before moving onto other ventures. His newsletter, Footy Analytic Musings, is a great source for football data both on pitch and in balance sheets. If you need someone to help you understand the ins and outs of roster rules, league finance, and other dense topics subscribe to his newsletter here.
Jon Arnold: Arnold covers CONCACAF region soccer better than just about anyone else, in both English and Spanish. Subscribe to his newsletter Getting CONCACAFed here..
American Soccer Analysis: If you're a numbers person who wants to dig deep into the data of the game, ASA is the best source for that these days after FBRef ended their advanced numbers availability. Check out their site here.
