FC Dallas Star Sam Sarver Shines with Late Goals and Unique Celebrations
Not all heroes wear capes. Some heroes wear the red and blue hoops of FC Dallas’ 2026 home kit paired with a wild shock of blond hair.
Sam Sarver certainly does. The 23-year-old former Indiana Hoosier has quickly become one of the most talked-about players in Major League Soccer thanks to his wildly efficient goalscoring record. He’s netted three times this season in just 182 minutes of play; that’s one goal every hour.
Lionel Messi, for contrast, is currently putting up one goal in every 98 minutes he’s on the field.
Sarver’s goals aren’t just for show, either. Every single one has come in the 87th minute or later and every single one has underlined a key FC Dallas win.
If Sarver was just MLS’ most lethal and efficient substitute striker, he’d still win plenty of plaudits. But he also happens to be one of the league’s greatest, wackiest personalities, and the one-two punch of his goalscoring efficiency and unhinged antics came to a head on Saturday against the league-leading San Jose Earthquakes.
Sarver came into the game in the 83rd minute, when everything was tied at 2-2. His arrival sparked Dallas back to life and pulled momentum in the Texas team’s favor, and in the third minute of added time, he scored the game winner off a brilliant solo breakthrough run.
And how did he celebrate? Oh, by flipping himself and his teammates off an advertising hoarding like scuba divers and shotgunning a beer thrown at him by an angry San Jose fan, that’s how.
Sarver’s antics were some of the last we’ll see in MLS for a good long while. The league is coming to a necessary halt this summer to make room for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
We’re going to hear a lot about what American soccer is and isn’t over the course of this quadrennial tournament. We’re going to discuss Christian Pulisic’s goalscoring drought and Chris Richards’ swollen ankle and Diego Luna’s famous broken nose. We’re going to celebrate how far our national program has come; we’re going to lament how many growth opportunities it missed.
What we’re not going to do, in all likelihood, is celebrate a guy like Sam Sarver being a globally lethal attacker while shotgunning opposition beers for sport. And that’s a real shame.
Sarver isn’t anywhere near coach Mauricio Pochettino’s U.S. Men’s National Team lineup and he probably never will be. But as the World Cup looms, don’t forget: It’s people like him, not just the 26 men on Pochettino’s final roster, that make American soccer the fascinating, entertaining, frustrating, head-spinning joy that it is. No other country on earth is producing players more efficient than Messi and more eclectic than prime Dennis Rodman. That’s American soccer for you, right there, and once you wipe the Modelo foam off your brow, you’ll see it’s utterly, redemptively beautiful.
FC Dallas will return to action on May 23 away at the Colorado Rapids.