Nico Estévez knew better than to expect a mellow, easygoing reception from local media when he was officially introduced as Austin FC’s new head coach last week. And his first press conference confirmed it.
The explosively-growing city’s wholehearted embrace of its first top-flight professional sports team helped foster a substantial press pack, whose coverage has increasingly reflected the fanbase’s rising impatience with only one Audi MLS Cup Playoffs qualification in the Verde’s first four seasons of existence. That helps explain why Estévez and ATX sporting director Rodolfo Borrell were peppered with probing questions about the hire, to an extent not often seen at unveilings like this one.
“Why this name at this time for the challenges that face the club in this moment?”
“His resume is very similar to Josh Wolff's … why [do] you expect the results to be different?”
"Nico, what didn't work out in Dallas the first four months of this year?"
“Coach, after getting fired back in June, are you surprised to be here?”
An unexpected hire
Those were just a few of the queries the duo fielded at Q2 Stadium, and while Borrell showed flashes of impatience, Estévez says he doesn’t mind the scrutiny that’s accompanied his arrival in the Texas capital.
“No, it's been great,” the Spaniard told MLSsoccer.com with a smile in a one-on-one conversation two days later. “I mean, I understand the media’s job, being around in this world for a while, and coming from a country where media is very strong and very important, and also are difficult to deal with sometimes in different moments.
“But I understand the doubts, I understand the interest to know things. Because at the end of the day, it’s how they live, and it’s the way that they have to share things to their fans and to the people, and we have to try to give them the best information as possible [so] that they can do a good job also.”
It’s not that the questioning was out of line. In the immediate aftermath of Josh Wolff’s dismissal last month, Borrell spoke of “at least 25 coaches offering themselves to join Austin FC, names that you wouldn't even believe,” hinting at global interest in the vacancy and a search process to match.
Choosing a manager who’d spent most of the last three years leading their in-state rivals FC Dallas, located just three hours north on Interstate 35, naturally stoked some curiosity, particularly given his modest 28W-27L-28D record in regular-season play at FCD. Perhaps more remarkable: Estévez had not actually applied for this job.
“Rodo called me, and I was surprised, because I never tried to coach Austin FC,” Estévez explained. “Because Josh was there and he’s my friend, and I have values, and I don't want to step out of [line with] any good friend.”
Estévez and Wolff worked together extensively in the past as members of Gregg Berhalter’s staff, first at the Columbus Crew and later at the US men’s national team. After leaving Dallas in June, Estévez had conversations with clubs elsewhere around MLS, but gained little traction before U.S. Soccer recruited him to rejoin the USMNT in the final weeks of Berhalter’s tenure, replacing B.J. Callaghan after he took the reins at Nashville SC.
It speaks to his skill set and reputation that he was asked to stay on amid the sweeping changes heralded by Mauricio Pochettino’s hiring.
“It's funny, because I received some calls to coach abroad,” Estévez revealed, “in Qatar, in other places, but we made strong decision with the family that we prefer to stay in the United States for this time, and with the US men's national team. And after that, things changed in the national team.
“When I talked with Mauricio and with his staff and with Matt [Crocker, USSF’s technical director], they wanted me to stay and help them in this transition and after, if I wanted to stay, they will be more than happy with me staying in the staff. And it was a good experience to know them.”
Austin get their man
Ironically enough, the USMNT’s first camp under Pochettino took place in Austin, with the Yanks based at the Verde’s St. David's Performance Center for a friendly vs. Panama at Q2. Estévez had no prior relationship with Borrell, but Pochettino and the core of his staff did, having crossed paths in Barcelona in the past.
Estévez met Borrell briefly at the ATXFC training facility, yet he had no clue at the time that his countryman had him on the radar for the coaching vacancy.
Just days later, he got an unexpected call from the FC Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City alum.
“I did the interview and I felt like, man, this could be an amazing place to be, because of the way that Rodo was describing it. I’m also not blind -- I played against, I know what that stadium can bring, playing with the national team there, Gold Cup and other games, and I knew that the environment is awesome,” said Estévez.
“I felt like he knew me better than myself in some areas, you know?” he added of Borrell. “And we discussed a lot of things, even the things that he didn't like. He’s very direct in his approach, and he was saying, I don't care if you got fired, if things didn't go well in this period, I know what you did in Dallas. I know what I want to happen in Austin, and this is why I'm calling you. And after that the club sent me an offer, and then everything escalated very quickly, because the offer was good and it was very little to change.”
Tapping the academy pipeline
Borrell would later explain that he was drawn to Estévez’s knowledge of the academy system, his track record of player development, and his experience with Texas’ blazing summer heat. This, he believed, was a coach who could maximize what Austin already had on hand, rather than concoct a shopping list of new signings or overhauls.
“At the end of the day, you have to find the right person that fits your club,” said Borrell last week. “I have to look at somebody who I believe is capable of implementing what we want on the pitch and develop it.”
That likely includes not only coaching up the senior squad, but coaxing more contributions out of a second team with some intriguing prospects, and a five-year-old academy that has thus far produced just one player to earn an MLS homegrown contract (18-year-old midfielder Micah Burton, who has yet to make his MLS debut).
“On the academy side, it is really like a laboratory,” said Estévez. “And they probably during these five years have been figuring things out, learning about more the profile of players that they have to sign in the young ages, what they need to break through to the first team, and then maybe it's a moment now that there are a couple players that are more ready than they were before.
“It's also the approach that I do as a coach. I work a lot with individuals,” he added. “You think about in pro [level], they're professionals, you know, but they still have to learn a lot of things. They come in from different backgrounds, they're coming from different educations. They come in from different ways to defend, to attack, and then individual training is something that my staff and me are very big on.”
Estévez can point to several players he helped nurture into key contributors in Dallas. A recent visit to resurgent English Premier League outfit Aston Villa to study the methods of their respected Spanish manager Unai Emery gave him further fodder for his approach.
“Emery is very big on that, on individual training. Why? Because he would like to have the best players in the world also, but you have limitations on the budget - here in MLS, with the salary cap, even though you want to have the best players, you have those limitations,” said Estévez. “The only way to compete against the best teams, and the only way to improve, is to improve the players.
“What I've learned is you can improve a team collectively in a way that you attack or defend, but it's a moment that you're going to get stuck, because the individual improvement is not there. And then there’s limitations there. If we identify what areas we can improve our players, once we arrive to that collective level, the individual improvement is going to make us a little bit to go farther in that collective way to be better,” he explained, pointing to examples like Nkosi Tafari, Bernard Kamungo and Alan Velasco. “We started in Dallas in my first year, we increased it in the second year, we were much more productive in the third year. And we have biggest samples of players that have improved alongside these years.”
Sky-high expectations
Estévez will likely need to make gains on both the short and long-term fronts at ATX, where the euphoria of the expansion honeymoon has well and truly worn off as the urgency for more consistent competitiveness grows.
Rather than piling on additional stress, he says that pressure is part of the appeal.
“Austin, since they built the team, the ownership and the club from the beginning set high expectations, because the investment that they made with the stadium, with the training facility, with key players that arrived to the club,” he noted. “Also it's the only professional sport in the city, the fans look more like a fan base that is more around the world -- really focused on the team, they're wearing their jersey, they're wearing anything Austin FC around the streets, they stop you while you’re walking around and say hello and support you. And I think that is one of the main attractions, and more, one of the most important things that a fan can do in the city.
“You can feel that passion. You can feel that closeness to the club. And I think that's amazing, for a young club to have that huge fan base and that support. And the ownership and everyone in the front office that I could meet, their desire and willingness that the team does well, for me was an amazing experience to be in the last couple days there.”
Whatever frustrations the Verde hardcores in the rowdy supporters’ section behind Q2’s south goal may be feeling, now or in the future, Estévez wants them to know that he’s been in their shoes. Years before joining the club’s coaching staff, he was a committed backer of CF Valencia, since his teens a member of one of the peñas (supporters groups) who provide the loudest and most devoted backing for Los Che.
Mention of that topic prompted him to first extend his condolences to those afflicted by the flash floods caused by severe storms in his homeland, which have killed more than 200 people and counting, as well as inflicting vast suffering and damage.
“I'm going to use this moment to send a strong support to all the victims that we've had in the last couple days there through the DANA storm that has been horrible,” said Estévez. “We have some friends that are having a hard time. My family is doing well, but there is some people that are having a really difficult time.
“Sports is a really good example of how you can help. I know Valencia, Levante, Villarreal, all those clubs around that Valencia area are using their stadiums, their facilities to [help] the people, to drop food, to drop clothes, to help on those situations. I grew up watching Valencia - as I told the supporters, when I was 16 years old, my friends and I just joined a support group, and crazy, like a crazy experience. We know how you feel when you are supporting the team, giving everything that you've got in the good, in the bad, and it's what made me feel that passion to this sport.
“After, when I moved to the coaching side, I had to leave that supporting side and stay a little bit calmer and then analyze things with a different perspective. But I always have that feeling.”
