The Roja Letters: Your BURNing FC Dallas questions finally answered

For months, my colleague Chris Bils has been taking questions from Austin fans in a regular feature he calls the Verde Letters. Meanwhile, FC Dallas fans' queries have gone unanswered, ignored.

No longer. The Roja Letters are here, and we have a great batch of questions from subscribers who are fans of the current Copa Tejas holders.

If you want to get involved in the next mailbag piece, send an email at any time to mailbag@thestrikertexas.com or pay attention to The Striker Texas social media accounts and respond when there's a prompt.

Let's dip into the bag and see what we find!

Hey Nathan! It's a good question.

I get the feeling the FCD fan base still is a bit snakebit from last season. I don't think anyone expected to see the team lifting the MLS Cup, but nobody was ready for the club to be one of the legs propping up the table from the bottom either.

It's OK to be cautious. It's becoming more and more difficult to be competitive in Major League Soccer as more teams are added and teams state their ambitions by taking advantage of the mechanisms now in place to allow teams to spend significantly more than the salary cap limit.

The thing is that FC Dallas put itself in that mix this offseason. It filled its designated player slots. It has a U-22 initiative player and might add more. It invested money to upgrade the facilities players use every day like the gym and the breakfast space and helped Nico Estévez create a more open-concept coaches office that allows for fluid exchange of ideas.

I think patience is the way, and Estévez himself will note the team on the field is still a work in progress in terms of understanding his system, his ideas and putting the things taught on the training ground into practice. That said, I've been impressed enough by the team returning to defensive rigidity while having enough spark going forward (something the numbers back up when you look at xG difference) that I think fans can expect a return to respectability.

That is to say, the playoffs should be the expectation again, even though the Estévez era is just getting started.

They've definitely needed to spend more money to have a realistic chance to win a first-ever MLS Cup. They've done that some this offseason, though the jury is still out on if they've spent wisely enough to lift a trophy.

When you look at the 'ingredients' of a team like New York City FC or the Seattle Sounders — both also Concacaf Champions League semifinalists — you see full DP slots spent on players who are proven or well-scouted in South America. FCD has that in Alan Velasco. But is there a player who is as influential as a Taty Castellanos or Raul Ruidiaz? We'll see if Velasco can sustain his early success, but it's an extremely high bar.

The other element is a well-drilled defense (I would say check though FCD still needs to do a little more to show last season was a fluke) with a strong No. 6 or crushing two-way midfielder in front of them. That's a place where I think FCD still could upgrade. Edwin Cerrillo had a nice start to the season, but he's in close competition with Facundo Quignon for that spot. At their current level, neither would start for teams like NYCFC, the Sounders or the Portland Timbers. 

Another ingredient missing? Attacking depth. It was rough to have both missing at the same time, but you saw what happened against the Chicago Fire when both forward Jesus Ferreira and winger Paul Arriola were out.

So, some pieces of the recipe are there, but there are still some things that could be added to the mix to take FCD from playoff striver to cup contender.

After the 2021 season, FCD signed defender Nkosi Tafari to a new three-year deal with club options for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. I think with that simple fact we can say the 25-year-old figures in FCD's long-term plans.

Teams need three quality center backs — FCD hopes it has four with the addition of Barcelona SC prospect Joshue Quiñónez — even if that third center back doesn't play much for a spell. The vibe I get is that Estévez plans to add tactical wrinkles and even new systems later in the season but doesn't feel like the squad is quite ready for that. That might include a three at the back look that would include Tafari.

As the season progresses, especially as the club enters the U.S. Open Cup and adds games, there will be more opportunities to start in a back four, too. And, no one wants this, but as last year showed, sometimes guys get hurt.

I also don't think it's entirely fair to say Estévez is sticking with Martinez because of the contract situation. It always felt like a no-brainer to me that Estévez, a Spaniard with experience in La Liga and the lower divisions in Spain, would gravitate toward Martinez, a Spaniard with experience in La Liga and the lower divisions in Spain. I'm not implying it's nationalism, I just think it's the shared background.

Also, Martinez has been good! He openly said that last year was the worst in his career and worked in the offseason to be sharper and more ready for MLS attackers.

Tafari will get his shot, but it's good news for FCD if its intended center-back pairing is working well together.

Szabolcs Schon showed flashes last season, with a pair of assists in an August win over Austin FC that followed an assist in the Ricardo Pepi hat trick game against the LA Galaxy in July and another assist in the road win against Sporting Kansas City. Come to think of it, when Schon was setting up forwards, it was the high point of the FCD season in 2021.

As a massive fan of international soccer, it pains me to say this: I think representing Hungary has seriously limited Schon's FCD success. He arrived in late May off a full European season in his native country, then went to the Euros. He got back in great form but then left again for World Cup qualifiers. Down the stretch last season, he largely was a bench option. This year, it's been the same, yet he hasn't gotten off the bench. It's never a good sign when two coaching staffs come to the same conclusion.

Even so, it has been surprising this year to see Estévez go to Kalil ElMedkhar for late minutes rather than to the Hungarian Cowboy.

I would be surprised if we don't see Schon getting a debut soon. He was active in the training session I saw Tuesday after making the bench last weekend just days after returning from Europe. After that, it will be entirely on him to play in a way that convinces Estévez he needs more minutes. 

The elephant in the (locker) room with Franco Jara is the salary. If the veteran Argentine forward was making even half of what he's making, he'd be a perfect player for FCD. 

From what his teammates and coaches say, Jara is nothing but a model professional, taking guys like Velasco under his wing as his countryman plays abroad for the first time. He's a nice option to have off the bench, giving FCD a player to keep up top and stretch defenses late. He's slow, but he works, and sometimes that's half the battle, especially as games wear on.

So, he seems useful. But then you remember that contract, and the reality sets in. He's the team's highest-paid player, he's occupying a designated player spot and, in an ideal world, doesn't start.

I would say Jara is a bad value for FCD but a good player to have in the squad. I'm not sure how you square those two things.

Hmmm, Velasco is a sweet kid but has a little too much of that, like, "I know I'm good" swagger you need to become a transcendent player. Pomykal is an extremely nice guy but probably cusses too much in interviews to be the MOST wholesome. Jader Obrian actually is extremely reserved with the press, but he loves to get under guys' skin so much on the field that I think he's got a bit of a mean streak.

I'm going to go with Jimmy Maurer. It's like the silly question during elections where they ask who you'd rather have a beer with, but Jimmy is just a good dude.

Team dad, actual dad, consistently positive guy despite getting dealt a tough hand this season. Maurer got injured at the worst time and hasn't won back the starting goalkeeper job from Maarten Paes after the preseason foot injury.

Nevertheless, he's still supporting the team, training hard and waiting for his chance. What's more wholesome than that?