Call it bad luck, karma, or a case of not doing enough during the regular season.
The fact is that the playoff seeding sent FC Dallas to battle against the Seattle Sounders, a team they have been able to beat only once in five postseason games.
On Monday, FCD will visit the home of the Sounders to begin the best-of-three series under the new MLS postseason format.
In this new format, every Round 1 game will have a winner: no ties, no aggregate score.
The matches will be hosted in a home-away-home format.
“We have to go out and play Monday’s game as if it were the last game of the season,” FCD coach Nico Estévez said. “We can’t think we have one more game to recover if we lose.”
The problem is that FC Dallas hasn’t won consecutive away matches in over five years since a three-match run in 2018.
In their last game of the regular season, FC Dallas convincingly beat the Galaxy in Los Angeles by a score of 4-1.
“The result against the Galaxy gives us confidence, it makes us feel that we can win on the road,” Estévez said. “If we play with the concentration and intensity we did in Los Angeles, we have a good chance of getting a positive result in Seattle.”
Monday’s game will be the sixth time FC Dallas has met Seattle in the postseason since 2014.
The Sounders have advanced in four of the last five postseason meetings, including three in a row.
The only time FCD was able to knock out Seattle was in the 2015 conference semifinal.
Including playoffs, Seattle is unbeaten in 17 straight home games against FC Dallas (13 wins, four draws) dating to 2012.
FCD finished the regular season in seventh place in the Western Conference with 46 points, while Seattle took second place with 53 points.
The second game of the series will be Saturday at Toyota Stadium in Frisco.
How to watch
FC Dallas at Seattle Sounders, 8 p.m. Monday at Lumen Field
Streaming: Apple TV
TV: FS1
Find more FC Dallas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.