“Are you hungry or do you just want to eat?”
That’s the tried-and-true maxim of North Texas SC’s interim head coach Michel Garbini.
His players hear it almost every day. For them, it’s simple: Do you just want to win or do you need to win?
Michel is a native of Brazil and – like many of his countrymen in the sport – is known simply by his first name. Michel knows the importance of winning. Success on the field took him from a small but populous island on the south coast of Brazil to Belgium, Greece and eventually the United States.
His longest stop in the U.S. was with FC Dallas, where he played three seasons and became renowned for his magical left foot.
Following his nearly two-decade playing career, Michel resettled in Dallas to become assistant coach for the newly-formed North Texas SC—the second team of FC Dallas. In a team of constant roster and staff turnover, Michel was the one constant. He was the man behind the scenes on matchday but in training he was front and center. Whether it was position-specific drills, small-sided games or full 11v11, Michel was in the mix, leading by example with and against players 20+ years his junior.
That all changed this June, midway through North Texas SC’s sixth season. The club’s head coach, John Gall, was called up to be part of FC Dallas’ coaching staff as an assistant to Peter Luccin. Finally, Michel got his chance.
“John moved up and that was a good thing for him,” Michel said. “And all these years, I’ve been getting ready for this. My time came. I think we’ve been doing a decent job right now, driving the team to the playoffs. I’m super happy to be in this moment right now with the players and the staff.”
Michel is being modest. In the regular season, his North Texas side earned the most points in MLS NEXT Pro (62, six more than anyone else), the best goal differential (+24, six more than anyone else), while clinching the #1 seed. With home-field advantage, Michel and North Texas have been prolific in the postseason, scoring 10 goals over three games en route to this Saturday's MLS NEXT Pro Cup.
“He's bringing out the best in the players and that shows up in the results, so the transition was quite smooth,” said Nico Gordon, North Texas’ captain who earned a place in the league’s Best XI. “He's really good, honestly. He likes to play. He's very passionate about the game. He stays on top of the guys so he knows what the guys can give. He's been with us for a long time and he pushes us every day.”
It's a small sample size but Michel has shown the all-important ability to replicate regular season success in the playoffs. And it's no surprise. Michel was an assistant to North Texas' first head coach Eric Quill, who led the club to a league title during its inaugural 2019 season. Seven players from that side have gone on to play for FC Dallas while three have become regulars for the U.S. Men’s National Team (Ricardo Pepi, Tanner Tessmann, Bryan Reynolds).
“That team had a lot of talents,” Michel explained. “We can see they still play at the highest level. And this year is going to be the same thing here. In the future, we're going to see some of these players at the highest level. (In 2019), we said ‘okay, this group has something special.’ We felt that way. (This year), we feel that way again.”
To lift the trophy and match the heights of that 2019 side, Michel’s team will need to be at its best one more time. North Texas faces Philadelphia Union 2, the Eastern Conference champions who boast the league’s most hyped player: 15-year-old prodigy Cavan Sullivan. The key, for Michel, is to have the right mentality when they walk out on the field Saturday night.
“It's my question to the players every day: Are you still hungry or do you just want something to eat?
“I think we’re still starving.”
