FRISCO — Paul Arriola took a glance at FC Dallas assistant coach Javier Cabello on the touch line as the FCD winger stood atop the box. FCD was tied with MLS-leading LAFC and had won a free kick just outside the penalty. Then, Arriola looked at Jesus Ferreira, who was standing over the ball.
“Watch Arriola,” warned FCD television analyst Steve Davis spotting what was on.
Arriola made his run and found himself totally ignored as Ferreira smashed it in.
There were no hard feelings. Arriola celebrated the winning goal with Ferreira. The free kick worked just how FCD drew it up. Except, FCD had never drawn the play up — nor did it have a plan for the first goal, when Arriola took a free kick quickly before the LAFC defense could set up and stop Ferreira from scoring the opener.
“Even then, that wasn’t a play we trained,” said Arriola, who missed Thursday and Friday sessions with back trouble. “It just came down to players making the right decision.”
It turns out that’s a large part of the philosophy Cabello and the FCD coaching staff utilize on set pieces. During the week, Cabello offers tips and analysis on how opponents line up. Then, he allows the players themselves to determine what types of crosses or runs might work best. From there, rather than the manager telling them what to do when the whistle blows, they’re empowered to make the right choices.
“He makes the players make the decisions,” FC Dallas manager Nico Estévez said. “We always have that situation where the players have to decide. I think it’s working very well, and you could see how they were very sharp and paying attention to situations where we can hurt (LAFC). What the players do in training, you can see on the field.”
It should come as no surprise that the idea to have players work autonomously came out of one of Spain’s most independent-minded autonomous regions. Estévez credited former Athletic Bilbao psychologist María Ruiz de Oña’s work with the all-Basque club’s youth clubs as pioneering the method. It spread from there to Villarreal where Paco Lopez took it from that club’s youth squad to Levante, where he eventually became the first-team manager.
While Estévez plans to utilize the methodology more holistically as he continues to work with FCD, he and his staff opted to utilize it largely on set pieces this season in their first year with the club.
“We’re trying to to build something where the player has information, we give them the resources, we help them understand what’s happening, understand our system of play and later when they’re on the field they’re able to do it,” the manager said.
While FCD scored both goals from dead-ball situations against LAFC, it hasn’t been among the league leaders in set-piece goals this season. The stats service WhoScored notes FCD has scored eight goals from set pieces this year, putting it in the middle of the pack in MLS — and just half the number of league-leading Nashville SC.
“I don’t think we’ve been overly successful on set pieces, but I know we’re consistently trying ... new things, and sometimes when you’re willing to try, good things will happen,” Arriola said.
And FCD has been finding more success in recent weeks, especially before winter arrival Alan Velasco suffered a thigh injury last week that will keep him out for another two or three matches. But whether Velasco, Ferreira, Arriola or left back Marco Farfan are over the ball, the players getting in the box have an idea what to expect. They know there could be a moment of magic on the way.
“That’s the key. I think we put confidence in the guys who normally take the set pieces who have that creativity. They make the strategic decisions. That’s fundamental,” center back Jose Martinez said. “A lot of teams have something established of how they can defend and organize on a set piece, but we have those creative players and have to be confident in that freedom they have, even during the week, to create different types of plays and we try to help them. A lot of times we’re setting up a block or working in pairs, seeing what they’ll decide and we take advantage of the good choices they’ve made.”
As players become more and more comfortable taking control and making the right decisions on set pieces, Estévez and his staff hope it leads to more moments like Saturday: Celebrating a win thanks to the faith the players showed in the methodology and the faith they’ve shown in the players.
The Dallas Morning News partners with The Striker Texas to bring coverage of FC Dallas and other notable Texas soccer stories to dallasnews.com. Find more soccer coverage at thestrikertexas.com.
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