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Hyndman named MLS Coach of the Year

 SchellasJacket

Schellas Hyndman utilized his roster in ways he probably didn't plan on during the preseason.

The outcome? An FC Dallas team that reached the playoffs for the first time since 2007, and one whose 19-game unbeaten streak in the regular season turned the side from postseason afterthought to MLS Cup contender.

As a result, Hyndman was named MLS Coach of the Year on Thursday, beating out New York Red Bulls coach Hans Backe and Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis to win the honor, the first-ever for an FC Dallas coach.

Among Hyndman's accomplishments this season was overcoming injuries to key contributors such as Kevin Hartman, Daniel Hernandez, Ugo Ihemelu and George John. Hyndman turned to rookie Eric Alexander and midseason acquistion Jackson and still achieved the results necessary for FCD to tie RSL for fewest losses in the league (4). Hyndman also got the most out of Jeff Cunningham after turning him from every-game starter to super-sub.

Hyndman will look to add to his season accolades with an upset of the Los Angeles Galaxy (a team that dealt FCD half of its losses) this weekend, one that would clinch an improbable Western Conference title and MLS Cup berth.

What do you think of this selection? Who got your vote?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Yeah, yeah, the poor Red Bulls were robbed. Again. MLS has it out for them. The refs have it out for them, too. No one in the league front office wants the team in the BIGGEST FREAKIN’ MEDIA MARKET to do well.

    Not a whole lot of commenting logic on this site lately. Many RBNY supporters have become insufferable.

    Imagine how bad they’ll be if they actually, say, win a trophy.

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  2. so forget about the CCL. RSL only had 4 loses (I know Dallas did also) along with that, undeafeted at home thru all competions, 1 point from the supporters sheild, no DP’s, injury’s to shuffle thru, no way Jason should have it. However, just like I said here yesterday “It’s going to go to Dallas” You have to look at this choices as the league saying “here’s one for your team, and here’s one for this team” they just spread it around every year. We’ll see how bad the do juggling CCL and MLS next year!

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  3. Who REALLY deserves the award…..???

    The coach whos sitting on his couch? (or doing WHATEVER suits his fancy)

    OR…

    The coach who is preparing his team for a conference final?

    You guys need to stop being retarded as time has proven Hyndman as the most deserving of the candidates. It is not a knock on the other great coaches in the running;It is simply reality.

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  4. Okay 4 of the eight guys you mentioned as new players didn’t get there until midway thru the season or in Ballouchy’s case with only a month and a half left in the season.

    Juan Agudelo did pretty well for Backe in the playoffs so looks like he did well preparing a rookie as well, despite the fact that he had played A LOT less than the rookies in Dallas.

    I love that RSL did great in CCL, but this is the MLS Coach of the year award, not the Concacaf US best coach of the year.
    What teams, players and coaches do in CCL has no bearing on MLS. Is it impressive? yes but it has no bearing on MLS, does it make them tired and force a team to test it’s depth? Absolutely but beyond that, you can’t give extra points to someone for performing in CCL, for the same reasons you take into account only the regular season not the playoffs, not everyone is able to be seen playing in those scenarios so you take the sample of time in which all teams & players play, the regular MLS season.

    Hyndman did great to ride out an amazing long streak, but Dallas came withing a win or 2 from making the playoffs last year and had the Golden Boot winner who pretty much didn’t miss a beat considering his PT ration from 09 to 10. New York did make some good GM moves in Albright, Tchani, Ream, Linpere etc etc but they COMPLETELY changed the way they were playing, and that is due to the Backe’s coaching, don’t hate them for spending money on DP’s, okay this isn’t like Real Madrid or the Yankees there’s no shopping spree, every team CAN have 2 DP’s and buy a 3rd one to give the other 15 teams the 250K evenly. Personally is helping MLS big time to put those names in MLS, like it or not, I would have loved to seen Chicago and/or Toronto in playoffs but it didn’t happen but NY in final I would have loved to see. And I’m not from NY or even like NY, but you gotta admire what it does for the league, as far as the COY Schellas is a great winner, but Backe did the best job. Look at how Richards played?

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  5. Actually, Backe’s strength was NOT player acquisition. You’d expect most of the roster to turn over after last season. No, his strength was tactics and the ability to build a team. He did in 1 year what it took Hyndman 3 years to do.

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  6. Agreed. But I think the even bigger accomplishment by Backe was overcoming an organizational culture of ineptitute. Richie Williams is the only guy who’s coached a NY franchise who’s had more than a month of success. Some good coaches (Bob Bradley, Bruce Arena) have come here and the system/culture has swallowed them whole and spit them out). Worst to first is a good accomplishment but other teams have done that or close and that’s partially a factor of how good the competition is in the division. The larger issue is creating a team that plays good, smart, organized soccer and is part of an organization that seems to know what it’s doing. Huge turnaround by Backe.

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  7. First we beat the Yankees and now this?!?!

    Dallas 2- New York- 0

    Seriously though, comparing the difference in last year’s results and this year’s isn’t a valid way to determine the coach of the year. I think it’s more of a ‘the sum of the parts is greater than the whole’ mentality. I think that gives you Hyndman.

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  8. Well, at least Seth won the Humanitarian award. After the previous decisions, it was pretty obvious that the league that wants so much for NY to flourish will not give them any of the awards that they deserve…

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  9. Wow – all the NY was robbed crap makes me think this might be – oh, it is! – a NY board. Surprise, surprise.

    How’s about this – look beyond the whole “NY made a bigger point improvement” thing, which is nothing more than simple math, and look at the actual COACHING that was done.

    Congratulations to Hans – he should win GM of the year. Same players? Really? Lindpere, Marquez, Henry, Ballouchy, Ream, Tchani, Miller, Allbright – why don’t you check on where those cats were in 2009. But that isn’t COACHING. That is PLAYER ACQUISITION – and some of the biggest pieces (the rookies and the DPs) came because they were awful last year and because ownership spend the money.

    But COACHING is only losing four games while having to balance a myriad of injuries.

    In the game that clinched the defeat of the Defending MLS Cup Champions, RSL, not only did FCD have to overcome three starters out to injury/suspension (Pearce, Harris, Rodriguez), but the three subs were ALL ROOKIES.

    Rookies who stepped into that cauldron of a game that was the defending champions trying to keep their season alive, and they did just fine, thank you.

    Not folding like a deck chair against an inferior opponent AT HOME.

    No, folks – the playoffs showed clearly that of the three up for the award, Hyndman was most deserving – maybe only by the slightest of margins over Kreis, but both of them were WAY ahead of Hans.

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  10. Really? With Henry, Angel and Marquez, and you’re seriously trying to say that the league isn’t helping RBNY?

    Get over yourself.

    This award came down to Kreis and Hyndman. I think the points made about Kreis above (better point improvement, balancing CCL, etc.) are valid.

    But look at how many man-hours Hyndman lost from key starters – Hartman, Hernandez, John, Ihemelu, Pearce, McCarty.

    Kreis should have won the award last year for what he did with the team to win MLS Cup, but that isn’t how the voting is done.

    But NY fans, how about you go earn something and let that speak for itself, rather than continuing to buy a championship. When Hyndman came on board, he talked about what it takes to succeed in this league. Did he go out and get a DP or three? No. He went and found hard-working US players and built them into a skeleton that you then put a few key international players, and presto – top MLS side in the mold of RSL 09, Columbus 08, Houston 06-07, New England 05-07, DC 04…

    So you keep going after that Big Name that is going to win you a championship. Good luck with all that.

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  11. Love Schellas, but Backe was robbed. He pulled a worst-to-first with basically same players — had ’em in playoff position long before Henry and Marquez showed up. To do that in a high-pressure market, as a first year European coach, is no mean feat. His professionalism totally changed the culture of the club.

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  12. Damn, both Greg AND Drew wanted him fired? I’m surprised he survived. I heard Drew got sick last month and their concession sales dropped 50%. Thankfully Brek Shea got fined so they didn’t have to pay him his usual amount ($50 worth of “Bed Head” hair products).

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  13. Speaking to the whole NY got the shaft on these awards rumors, probably so, def in the Rookie of the Year dept imo. Does winning in the playoffs help a candidate? If the votes were done mid-season, choices still don’t make much sense to me. On a dift note, why don’t they wait till the season is over before handing out awards? Doesn’t handing these out now not make much sense timing wise? Why in between this set of playoff games? Seems so random.

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  14. There is no way Hyndman should have won this over Backe. What a joke. There is such a clear difference in the numbers, it’s not even close:

    NY went from last overall in 2009 to 3rd overall in 2010. Dallas went from 11th overall last season (and a +4 goal differential) to 5th overall (and a +14 goal differential). That’s good improvement but it’s nothing close to what Backe did with NY.

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  15. I’m one of those few FC Dallas fans. My choice for Coach of the Year was…Hans Backe. It’s nice to see that Hyndman won it but he has had nearly three years to put together his team. That worst to first thing from Backe was really great. Integrating three DPs can’t be easy, either.

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  16. Hey-sus. I hope he doesn’t wear this regularly. Name that caption is “Sir do you have any spare change.” He looks like that guy from Seinfeld who spilled part of a meatball sub on himself and didn’t change.

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  17. Because worst to first just isn’t good enough, right MLS? I get why the fans won’t allow RBNY players to win goal of the week, that’s just pure hate hate hating.

    But the league should be above that. There is only one true coach of the year, and one true rookie of the year. And neither was recognized.

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  18. Any of the three coaches deserved it. So if your glass is half full, then whoever won deserves it. But if you’re glass is half empty, then whoever won stole it from the other candidates.

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  19. And to think, 15 months ago there were dozens of FCD fans demanding he should be fired (and of course “dozens” is a majority of FCD fans). He built a team full of youth, a team that has so much young talent it could survive losing a few key players–they really seem to have built a team on the old Houstan Dynamo format that way.

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  20. Any of the three candidates would have been a worthy selection. I can’t quibble with the choice of Schellas, he really did a nice job at FCD. The only thing that I have pointed out before is that RSL actually improved more points-wise than Dallas did this season, and did it while having to juggle the Champions League schedule. And RSL/JK did it with no DP’s while having to deal with significant injuries during the season (Morales, Beckerman).

    I actually think of all the awards that RSL players/coaches were up for (Rimando-GKY, Olave,Borchers-DOY, Saborio-NCY, Kreis-COY) Kreis deserved it the most, but, again, I have no problem with the final decision.

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