ROWDY TIME SPORTS

FC Dallas can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that no major prices were lost in the MLS Expansion Draft.

With only defender George John taken by New York FC in Wednesday’s draft, Oscar Pareja and FCD can rest knowing that 2015 can come with the majority of 2014’s club intact. And that makes DFW’s MLS team the one with perhaps the best future of all the pro teams in the area.

Some people in North Texas want to say last year’s Rangers season was just a fluke due to injuries and that club will be right back to being a World Series contender in 2015. But if you really want to see a team who’s season got derailed by little more than injuries, look to the soccer club in Frisco.

For while FCD did make a return to the playoffs for the first time in years, the fact is the club could have had a much better seed had it not been foe a match winless streak over the summer, which can largely be attributed to the club having to work without the injured Mauro Diaz and Michel.

When fully healthy, FCD was right up there with the top clubs in MLS, and if everyone is active, Pareja’s club can be a serious contender for the Supporters Shield and the MLS Cup in 2015.

With Diaz, Michel, Blas Perez, Tesho Akindele and Fabian Castillo, FCD has one of the most explosive offenses in the league, giving Pareja a lot of versatility to how he can set a lineup for next season.

That is coupled with a defensive line including Zach Lloyd, Matt Hedges, Stephen Keel and Moises Hernandez that could act like a brick wall at many times during the season. The discipline Dallas’ back line could show at not allowing much to get past them allowed very little pressure to be put on the goalkeeper (if only the same could be true for their hockey brethren at the AAC).

The only chance FCD seems to be taking going into next season is in goal, as the club has declined its option on Raul Fernandez and taking Dan Kennedy from the defunct Chivas USA with the first pick in the dispersal draft. Fernandez and Chris Seitz were an amazing one-two combination that Pareja could alternate between the pipes with ease. Now, it looks like the job will be Seitz’s full-time with Kennedy competing for time.

But that should still be as good of an option for Pareja to put in goal as any coach in MLS. And it is just another example of FCD having one of the deepest organizations in all of MLS.

So while you wonder if the Mavericks are for real, hope that the Stars have time to turn around the disaster they’ve become or kid yourself into thinking the Rangers actually have a chance next season, there is still one club in DFW that already seems to be set and ready for game sot begin again, just three days after the last season officially ended.

For soccer fans in Dallas, 2015 likely can’t get here soon enough.

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