There will be some very notable absences when the San Jose Earthquakes and FC Dallas take the field at Avaya Stadium on Saturday afternoon. A combination of worldwide competitions and various injuries will leave many teams around Major League Soccer shuffling their lineups during the final pre-international-break weekend.
The Earthquakes will be missing a trio of defenders in Nick Lima (Gold Cup), Guram Kashia (Euro 2020 Qualifiers) and Harold Cummings (Gold Cup), as well as midfielder Anibal Godoy (Gold Cup).
FC Dallas may be without as many as eight influential players on Saturday. Youngsters Paxton Pomykal, Brandon Servania and Edwin Cerrillo are with the United States U-20s; Bryan Acosta (Honduras) will be at the Gold Cup; Carlos Gruezo (Ecuador) is at Copa America; and Pablo Aranguiz (Chile U-23) is at the Toulon Tournament in France. Designated Player Santiago Mosquera hasn’t played since May 11 due to a knee injury and forward Cristian Colman hasn’t played all season.
The Lone Star club will be leaning heavily on dangerous forward Dominique Badji, speedy midfielder Michael Barrios, towering defender Matt Hedges and Homegrown goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez. FC Dallas possesses plenty of young talent that may be asked to step up in their time of need as well, including Homegrowns Jesus Ferreira, Bryan Reynolds and Thomas Roberts and 2019 SuperDraft selection John Nelson.
FC Dallas is coming off a 2-1 home victory over Sounders FC, aided in part by a pair of first-half Seattle own goals. The result snapped a six-match winless streak for Dallas (0-4-2), who have fallen on hard times since their 5-2-1 start.
