Thursday afternoon during FC Dallas’ training session at the Home Depot Center, head coach Schellas Hyndman pulled aside right back Zach Loyd and told him of his earlier phone conversation with new US national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann.
“I got a call from Jurgen as soon as I arrived in LA,” said Hyndman, “and he asked in his typical way, permission to wanting to bring [Loyd] in.”
“Schellas took me aside and we talked about it,” Zach Loyd told MLSsoccer.com. “I’ve been banged up a lot so he just wanted to make sure that I was healthy and able to go and I told him yes.”
The national team call-up marks the second of Loyd’s almost two-year professional career with FC Dallas. His first was in January, as he started against Chile and won Man of the Match honors for his efforts at left back in the US’ 1-1 draw.
Another FC Dallas player, Brek Shea, flew with Loyd to Philadelphia on Sunday, providing more comfort to the Oklahoma native in the national team setting.
“It definitely makes things easier on the road to have someone you’re familiar with,” added Loyd. “It’s going to be exciting to be able to share that moment with Brek.”
Klinsmann later called Loyd — who collected this third assist of the season on Saturday against the Galaxy — to congratulate him on the call-up, but it was Hyndman that spoke more about his conversation with the former German national-teamer.
“It’s refreshing to have a conversation with a national coach and also refreshing to have the demeanor to say, ‘Hey, I know this is your player, can we bring him in, we’ve had an injury and we’d like to bring him in,’” said Hyndman. “We talked for maybe five to 10 minutes and we were able to give Zach this opportunity to be seen by the national coach and be a part of the game.”
SIGNING DANIEL CRUZ A LONG PROCESS
It is no secret that Colombian Daniel Cruz had been on trial with in-state rivals Houston Dynamo earlier this summer, but how FC Dallas got their hands on the former Ajax and Germinal Beerschot midfielder had remained a mystery until Hyndman revealed the method behind the signing.
“The process was that we had Daniel on our Discovery List and the Dynamo were interested in looking at him on trial,” said Hyndman. “So, they had to go through us to get him on trial, because we gave them permission to look at him.”
The 30-year-old midfielder played 18 minutes in Saturday night’s loss and exhibited a high level of patience and skill on the ball, traits that fit FC Dallas’ attacking style of play.
“After he was in Houston, we were able to get him to come up to Dallas and he was on trial with us for a week,” stated Hyndman. “Then we were able to work with the league and FC Dallas was able to work the numbers to be able to encourage him to sign with us.”
Robert Casner covers FC Dallas for MLSsoccer.com. He can be reached on Twitter: @robertcasner
