FRISCO, Texas – Preseason in Texas got a little more interesting with the announcement of La Copita, a friendly tournament featuring FC Dallas, Austin FC, Houston Dynamo and USL Championship side San Antonio FC.
La Copita (Spanish for “Little Cup”) runs from March 27 to April 10 with the winner being decided by a single-group table. All four participating clubs will play three 90-minute matches to accumulate points. The standard rule of three points for a win and zero points for a loss applies, but ties will be decided by a penalty shootout with the winning team taking two points and the losing team taking one. Goal difference and number of goals scored will serve as tiebreakers if clubs finish on the same number of points in the table.
| Opponent | Date | Venue |
San Antonio FC | April 2 | Toyota Stadium |
Austin FC | April 7 | Toyota Stadium |
Houston Dynamo FC | April 10 | BBVA Stadium |
Note: FC Dallas will also play a preseason match against San Antonio FC at Toyota Field on March 27, but that game will only count toward La Copita table for San Antonio. It will be a standard preseason match for FC Dallas with no bearing on its LaCopita standing.
The extra four games (three La Copita matches and one extra preseason matchup vs. SAFC) adds to FC Dallas' two other preseason games against the USL’s OKC Energy FC and Austin Bold FC. The six games are all part of Luchi Gonzalez’s preparations for his team's MLS season opener against the Colorado Rapids on April 17.
“It’s good for all of us to have competition,” Luchi said of the upcoming Copita games. “We usually don’t play each other (fellow Texas MLS teams) in preseason and wait until the regular season but there’s obvious challenges with travel so we need to be more regionalized. Our administrators and leaders have collaborated to make this possible so I think it’s great. We all need it, competition is what’s going to allow us to be ready for the real season.”
“It should be good, we’re very excited,” defender Eddie Munjoma added. “Obviously, there’s a lot of competition in Texas already and [especially] now that there’s new teams like Austin FC coming in. Houston Dynamo is obviously a rivalry that’s been longstanding. I think it should be good, we have all the competition and everything to prepare for the season here in Texas.”
For FC Dallas, a highlight of the new tournament will be facing 2021 expansion side Austin FC for the very first time. Austin has entered the league with much fanfare and will likely present a stern challenge as fellow Western Conference foes. The initial preseason matchup against the newcomers will give FCD a taste of what they can expect in the regular season to come.
“With the fact that they’re in Texas, there’s a rivalry,” Munjoma said. “And we’re going to treat it like one in preseason as well. We’re going to go out and compete and try to win the game. We’re going to treat it much like a regular season game because we’re obviously preparing for the season. We have to have to the same mentality, all the technical work, and everything we do in training, it’s all for the season so it applies in preseason as well.”
