SA Specialties
The heat and Seattle Reign FC take their toll on the Dash.
Wilmer Cabrera and Oscar Pareja were always different.
A city boy from Cartagena, Colombia, Cabrera preferred many options for outings with friends.
A country boy from Medellin, Pareja mostly wanted to hang out with his family on the farm.
Without soccer, they would have been strangers forever. With soccer, they were roommates, best friends and coaches of the same team.
Sunday night, their coaching paths will cross once again.
Cabrera’s Dynamo (6-51) will face Pareja’s FC Dallas (5-2-4) in a matchup of MLS Western Conference second-place teams at Toyota Stadium in Frisco.
Sunday’s Texas Derby will be billed as the first of three fights for El Capitan, the replica 18th-century mountain howitzer awarded to the winner each season.
It won’t be the first time Cabrera, 49, and Pareja, 48, are on opposite sides.
“We used to fight a lot,” Cabrera said with a smile. “He loves the farms and the countryside. I am from the city. We used to argue a lot about that, but we found balance. We knew how different we were, but we were always having fun and supporting each other.”
Despite their differences, Cabrera and Pareja formed a special bond through soccer.
Friendship evolves
They chose each other as roommates when they were called into youth and senior national team camps and competitions.
They did all the normal things friends do together. They went shopping and to the beach and to lunch. They helped one another pick out clothes that looked good. They shared money.
Their friendship and confidence in one another grew so strong that when they came to the United States they never really left each other.
In 2007, Pareja left his job as an FC Dallas assistant to be an assistant under Cabrera with the U.S. national under-17 team. In 2012, Pareja was hired as coach of the Colorado Rapids and hired Cabrera as an assistant.
“The important part was that we were working together,” Pareja said. “Being an assistant with each other shows we have an openness in the way we approach the games.”
The two talk a lot, though Pareja said it does not happen as often during the season because schedules can get so hectic.
When they do talk they discuss everything from soccer to life and their families — especially their families. Even their children know each other well.
Pareja, whose week was complicated by a Thursday game in Chicago, has had little time to socialize lately.
“Everybody is just preparing for the game as much as we can,” he said. “Hopefully, there will be more time in a different stage of the year when we can speak more.”
It has been more than three decades since they met with only soccer in common, but now everything down to their interview answers are nearly identical.
The popular question Cabrera and Pareja will get leading up to the game is what it will be like coaching against one another.
Both downplay the significance by pointing out they no longer wear their team’s uniform.
All they do is put their players in position to perform well.
Pareja has done that splendidly in his first fourplus seasons with FC Dallas.
Sustained success
Two years ago, Dallas finished second in the Supporters’ Shield standings. Last year Dallas finished on top.
In 2016, Dallas also won the U.S. Open Cup. Pareja has led Dallas at least to the Western Conference semifinals three years in a row.
Until the past two games of this season, Dallas was the lone unbeaten team in the league.
Cabrera has a long way to go to match Pareja’s level of success, but considering how closely intertwined the two have been throughout their playing and coaching careers, it would make perfect sense if he did.
The fact they would do it in cities as close and yet as different as Houston and Dallas makes the story even more compelling.
“We have different paths,” Cabrera said. “He is doing fantastic. Now it is my turn to try to follow his steps.”