With Saturday's match in San Jose marking Schellas Hyndman's final game as FC Dallas manager, here at FCDallas.com we'll be counting down our top 10 list of best moments over the last five and a half seasons that Hyndman has been at the helm leading up to Saturday afternoon's game. Here are moments #4 - #3:
READ: Schellas Hyndman Top 10 moments #10 - #8 -- Top 10 moments #7 - #5
#4 - MLS Coach of the Year - November 11, 2010
After missing the playoffs in 2008 and 2009, FC Dallas lost just four out of 30 games in 2010 en route to the team's first-ever MLS Cup appearance and on November 11, 2010, just before the Western Conference Final in Los Angeles, Head Coach Schellas Hyndman was recognized as the 2010 MLS Coach of the Year.
2010 is the first and only time an FC Dallas coach has won the prestigious award and Hyndman joined such US Soccer coaching legends as Bruce Arena, Sigi Schmid, Bob Bradley, Dominic Kinnear, Frank Yallop and Bob Gansler as MLS Coach of the Year recipients.
What Schellas said: "Awards are a response to the efforts of a lot of people," said Hyndman. "The team played extremely well that year. We had an outstanding team. We also had the MVP of the league and played a fantastic game to win against Salt Lake and LA to win the Western Conference."
"What I remember the most about that award was that my first season I coached FC Dallas was really only a partial season and I remember sitting with all the coaches at the combine and the question was asked to me 'what excites you about taking this job, why did you take this job?' My comment was I wanted to be challenged. I’d been very successful as a college coach, but we all want to be challenged against some of the best soccer minds in the country and to be compared to those coaches. To get that award was quite a statement."
#3 - Becoming all-time winningest coach in franchise history - April 20, 2013
WATCH: Hyndman sets record in win
Early in the 2013 season, FC Dallas was flying high and defeated Vancouver to move to 6-1-1 on the young campaign while extending FCD's lead at the top of the Western Conference. It was almost lost in the shuffle of the early-season success, but on that unseasonably-chilly night Hyndman passed Dave Dir to become the all-time winningest coach in franchise history with 219 points earned.
Hyndman was awarded the game ball by his team after the match and since April has extended his record to 244 points, a mark that will likely stand for quite a while.
What Schellas said: "It’s fantastic, it’s not something that you ever plan on getting honors or awards or statistics," said Hyndman. "I think it’s two things. One is that when you get a stat like that it means a little bit of longevity went along with it and two, it’s an award that’s a recognition that goes back to the first game I coached with a lot of different players that have played for FC Dallas, so I thank all those players as well."
