FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman was awarded the high honor of Coach of the Year for the 2010 MLS season. Hyndman, a former college coach with SMU for 24 years, joined the Dallas club in the middle of the 2008 season and has taken the club to their first postseason match since 2007. Pretty impressive stuff considering the former SMU man led the way to the postseason with an over-the-hill vet leading scorer in Jeff Cunningham and a team filled with relatively unknown players.
Hyndman’s Dallas side finished the season with a solid record of 12-4-14 and his club’s 19 game unbeaten streak was the best run of any squad in the league this season. Hyndman’s club is still active in the MLS postseason with a huge semifinal away match against the Los Angeles Galaxy this Sunday. The Galaxy have become heavy favorites to take home the MLS Cup, but Dallas and two other unexpected foes from the Western Conference stand in their way (all three coming off upset wins last weekend).
If things go the way they are expected then Hyndman will likely not be standing on the sideline for the MLS Cup final. But regardless of what happens this weekend, it is a pretty remarkable feat to win such an award so soon in your career in a new league. Hyndman, whose side beat the defending champs of Real Salt Lake last round of the playoffs, look to play spoiler to David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy this weekend in a match to advance to the MLS Cup final.
But regardless of the outcome, Hyndman has already won at least one award this season.
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