New FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman is taking a while to adjust from college to men’s pro soccer. At the weekend he told his players that no one’s place was guaranteed. After Tuesday’s Open Cup quarterfinal 3-1 loss at home to second-tier Charleston Battery, he vented again about his shattered game plan and why he may be forced to throw some of his players off the team bus.
The problem was that the team went out, made a mistake and conceded a goal. “So, you make a simple mistake,” said Hyndman, “and don’t distribute the ball quick enough, they knock it off, score a goal and you’re down 1-0. So, the game plan now changes to how do we get this back?” That question was never answered as the Battery went on to score two more goals before Dallas replied with a stoppage-time consolation effort. And the players? “I think we’re a much better team but things didn’t go our way,” said midfielder Arturo Alvarez. For defender Drew Moor, “we just didn’t take care of our opportunities. We need to capitalize earlier.”
Hyndman, meanwhile, set out the future for his team using a transport-based metaphor: “You have to set a goal that you’re on a bus and going in the right direction. I brought this up to the players that it’s not just important that you’re on the bus. You have to be in the right seat, a leader, a captain and a finisher. The people who aren’t willing to be in this role need to get off the bus. That’s kind of an analogy of how we get from being a good team to a great team. Right now, we have the potential to be a good team but we’re not.”