View From The Shires: End of Schellas’ Era at Dallas

Schellas Hyndman’s success may have been limited during his five-year tenure as FC Dallas head coach, yet last week’s announcement that the 62-year-old is to step down at the end of the season was still tinged with a great deal of sentiment.

Many would argue that change was necessary. Hyndman’s team only reached the playoffs in two of his five-plus seasons in charge, with much of the club’s once-promising youth movement failing to break through to the first team. This year, Dallas began the season as one of the hottest teams in the league, looking like prime Supporters’ Shield contenders, before their season completely unravelled as injuries and international call-ups took their toll and a lack of depth was painfully exposed. Dallas’ 50 goals conceded was worsted by only bottom-dwellers DC United and Chivas USA, while off-season additions Kenny Cooper and Eric Hassli, who were supposed to add some much-needed fire-power up front, simply failed to deliver the goals they promised, leaving Panamanian Blas Pérez to bear the brunt of the work.

Perhaps more significantly, Hyndman’s intense and disciplined coaching style saw several high-profile fallouts with players, such as Dax McCarty, Brek Shea, Heath Pearce and more recently Daniel Hernandez. At times it often felt like you were either fully behind Hyndman or you were against him, consequently leading to a certain amount of resentment building up over the years amongst fans.

It’s not difficult therefore to imagine why some were so keen to see change in Dallas, but that would also be overlooking the fact that Hyndman certainly enjoyed his fair share of supporter, both for the work he has done with the club and the way he has applied himself during that period.

Born in Macau, to a Russian-French mother and Portuguese father, Hyndman spent the first eight years of his life in China, before the family fled the country in 1957 to escape the growing threat of communism. After a very brief playing career, he would eventually go on to establish himself as a local soccer legend in the Dallas area, by becoming one of the most successful college coaches in history with the SMU Mustangs, from 1984 until he was appointed by the MLS club in 2008. Familiar therefore to a portion of fans, Hyndman’s methodical and occasionally tense approach to the game belied his good-natured and affable spirit away from the pitch, further endearing him to those already appreciative of his methods.

Also a martial arts expert, specialising in Aiki Jiu-Jitsu (likely where his meticulous approach to coaching derives from), Hyndman has been teaching the discipline in the Dallas area for over two decades, with a video of him being kicked in the groin by a former SMU player without so much as flinching earning internet notoriety. Partial too to sporting a brown bomber jacket on the sidelines on occasions, it was these types of anecdotes which made Hyndman somewhat of a cult figure around the league.

Achievements on the field however should not be forgotten either. Guiding the team to their first MLS Cup appearance in franchise history in 2010, after a landmark 3-0 win over the Galaxy in the playoffs, Hyndman’s side were eventually undone by an unfortunate own goal, which handed a 1-0 victory to the Colorado Rapids. The next year, Dallas recorded a 1-0 win against Pumas UNAM in the CONCACAF Champions League, marking the first time an MLS side had ever won in Mexico in CCL play, while who knows what else the team could have achieved that season had their playmaker and reigning MVP David Ferreira not suffered a season-ending injury early in April.

Hyndman’s preferred up-tempo counter-attacking style could certainly be aesthetically pleasing when deployed to its full potential, but arguably his finest skill was his ability to adapt his system around the players at his disposal – a remarkably underrated skill in the salary cap-restricted world of MLS. That trait likely won’t be fully appreciated until he has long gone but there’s certainly no doubt that Hyndman could do more with a roster than many coaches with vastly superior talent at their disposal might.

Ultimately, while Hyndman polarised opinions amongst fans by the end of his tenure, there remains an overwhelming sense of reverence for the man in Dallas, especially for knowing when the time was right to finally walk away from the club. The reception he received last Saturday during his final home game in charge (a 2-0 victory over the Seattle Sounders) is clearly testament to that and, wherever he goes next, he’s bound to command the same respect. Summing up his time in charge to the press, Hyndman said: “On a final note, it’s been fun, guys. This is a great organization, a great team and this club is going to go places. Not only the first team but our academy too.

“My wife asked me today, ‘Are you going to miss this?’ And I said ‘I’ll miss it every day.’ I’ll miss you guys as well. Thank you.”