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 #7 - #5:
READ: Schellas Hyndman Top 10 moments #10 - #8
#7 - David Ferreira signing - February 24, 2009
After taking over the team in 2008, Hyndman quickly realized that FC Dallas was lacking a #10 in the middle of the park. A playmaker that, when all else is in doubt, everyone on the field knows they can pass the ball to and good things will happen. Hyndman found his #10 in David Ferreira. Signed before the 2009 season, Ferreira became arguably the trademark player of the Hyndman era.
After a slow start, Ferreira sparked to life, finishing the 2009 season with eight goals and seven assists, but it was in 2010 that he became arguably the best player in the league. En route to MLS Cup, Ferreira earned the Volkswagen league MVP award in 2010 and looked set for an even better 2011 before a horrifying broken ankle ended his season prematurely. Ferreira ends the 2013 season with the third-most assists in franchise history as well as top ten in goals, shots and fouls suffered. There will be few that come through Frisco ever again like "El Torito" David Ferreira.
What Schellas said: "It’s interesting because maybe a year and a half before [joining FC Dallas], I was teaching an NSCAA coaching course at Atletico Parananense also marking the World Cup coming up that summer. I brought a colleague of mine, Harry Keough, who had played for the U.S. when they won [1-0 over England] in Brazil in 1950."
"I saw a young player that was training with curly hair and the look of David and I found out he was from Colombia. My comment to the coaches was wondering why they would have a Colombian here in Brazil playing in the first division and then the more I watched him, he was a live wire, a spark to the team. The guys really liked him and I said if I ever came to be a coach in MLS, I won’t forget about this player."
#6 - 19-game league-record undefeated streak - 2010
WATCH: 19-match undefeated streak
It almost seems to get overshadowed as 2010 was such a great year of achievements for Schellas Hyndman and FC Dallas, but one record that could stand for some time is the 19-game undefeated streak set from May 27 through October 9. The 19-game streak stands as the longest single-season streak in MLS history, tied for the longest overall undefeated streak in league history and also encompassed the longest road unbeaten streak in league history at 12 games.
Through that four-and-a-half-month streak, FCD won six home games in a row and scored heart-stopping last-second draws with Seattle and New England. The streak was finally snapped in a 2-0 loss at RSL, but Dallas would get their revenge just weeks later.
What Schellas said: “I dont really remember [the individual games]. I think I was just embracing the whole scene. It was a great season for us, we played very attractive soccer I thought. I thought our team was very good. We had very good soccer players and we had very good people."
"It took us from 2008 when I came in mid-year to turn the team into 2010 and there were a lot of really good leaders on that team. It was a culmination of very good players that played in one direction and that was very good soccer and we got good results.”
#5 - Playoff series win over RSL - October 30 & November 6, 2010
WATCH: FCD holds on in second leg
Having qualified as the number three seed in the 2010 Western Conference Playoffs, FC Dallas was matched up against reigning champions and second-seeded Real Salt Lake in the first playoff series for FCD since 2007. Hyndman and FCD finally put the long playoff drought to rest, winning the club's first MLS playoff series since 2002 in a pulse-pounding two-legged defeat of Jason Kreis and Real Salt Lake.
In the first leg in Frisco, Eric Avila broke a 1-1 draw late with a goal worthy of winning any playoff matchup, giving FCD a slender goal advantage to take to Utah. Dax McCarty scored in the first half to double the Dallas advantage and FCD held on through some heroics from goalkeeper Kevin Hartman to earn arguably the club's biggest result in nearly a decade, sending FCD to their first Western Conference Championship game since 2002.
What Schellas said: “It was a very vicious environment, they were prepared for us. They were focused and they had a very, very good team. We just went in there with so much determination and so much desire and focus that we were able to win the series and it was a massive win for the club, the players, and the coaching staff.”
