Lucho Acosta hailed the trust in the FC Dallas squad after a battling win over Real Salt Lake.

Acosta scored the only goal of the game as Dallas won 1-0, despite the Argentine having earlier missed a penalty.

Dallas are now preparing to face Sporting Kansas City at Toyota Stadium.

And Acosta, who joined in a blockbuster move from FC Cincinnati, is loving the mentality within the Dallas squad.

"We had to respond well. We had two losses at home, and we knew it was going to be a difficult match," said Acosta when reflecting on the win over RSL, as reported by Big D Soccer.

"But the mentality of this team is to move forward.

"We trust each other. We work day after day, we're very happy."

Goalkeeper Michael Collodi made his MLS bow in the win over Salt Lake, and is now looking forward to Dallas showing what they can do against an SKC team rooted to the bottom of the Western Conference.

He said: "We have to be hungry and push. It will be the kind of game we have to win.

"We have to show what we're about. We want to bring a win back home to our fans."

Dallas head coach Eric Quill, meanwhile, believes his team showed a "championship mentality" as they held out against Salt Lake.

"What I loved about us was our ability and mentality in the air when balls were coming in from direct areas, our guys were warriors climbing the ladder, picking up second balls," he said.

"We knew it was going to get ugly and sometimes you get burned if you don't have the championship mentality you can get stung on those direct plays."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

FC Dallas - Lucho Acosta

Acosta has 74 goals and 97 assists in regular-season play in MLS.

He is a goal and three assists away from becoming the fifth player in MLS history with at least 75 goals and 100 assists, after Landon Donovan, Jaime Moreno, Preki and Steve Ralston.

Sporting Kansas City - Daniel Salloi 

Salloi has scored eight regular-season goals against Dallas, three more than against any other team in his career.

In fact, no player has scored more goals against Dallas than Salloi since he made his MLS debut in 2017.

MATCH PREDICTION: FC DALLAS WIN

Kansas City have won only one of its last 17 away matches in all competitions (D1 L15) dating back to mid-May 2024.

Sporting have now lost seven in a row on the road, equalling the longest streak over all competitions in club history (excluding breakaway shootout losses).

However, all seven of Dallas' points so far this season have come on the road, as they have lost their first two home matches of the season. This is only the second time in club history that Dallas has lost their first two home matches of a season (2009).

The 14 meetings in all competitions since 2020 between Dallas and SKC have been split evenly, with each side winning six times and playing two draws.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

FC Dallas - 51.3%

SKC - 24%

Draw - 24.8%