In our weekly series featuring Schellas Hyndman, the FC Dallas head coach addresses 11 topics in brevity, including the tie against Texas rivals Houston Dynamo, the team’s unbeaten streak in May and George John’s groin injury.
I. After a midweek win at Seattle, FC Dallas traveled to Houston for the first leg of the Texas Derby last Saturday and surrendered a late goal en route to a 2-2 draw.
“We scored two nice goals and gave up two goals — late in the first half and then obviously the second goal late at the end of the game. I think that it was just a continuing sign of fatigue.”
II-III. An 87th-minute goal from the Dynamo’s Colin Clark leveled the game and left FCD frustrated to leave Houston with only one point.
“The boys were extremely disappointed getting scored on that late and being up a man and being on the road. They worked so hard and this was a three-point game. I said, ‘Guys, we are all disappointed as we came so close to getting the three points, but you know you gave everything you had.’”
IV. Hyndman mentioned fatigue and exhaustion when describing his team at the end of Saturday’s game.
“When you get tired, the thing that goes is your concentration and your focus. But I told them how proud I was of them.”
V. With the tie, FCD extended their unbeaten streak to eight games and earned 15 out of a possible 21 points in May.
“I think we set a record for the club for the month of May on points. May has been a good month for us when you look at everything.”
VI. The big news before the game was center back George John unable to play due a groin injury.
“When we were playing Seattle with about eight minutes left in the game, George was trying to get off the field because he had strained his groin.”
VII-VIII. With Hyndman’s team being pressed in its defensive third against Seattle, the head coach was forced to make a decision on John.
“I couldn’t take him off. I told him he had to fight through it because, if you remember the Seattle game, they threw numbers and big boys in there, so he battled and battled and we came away with three points.”
IX. The team put in place a plan to deal with John’s injury after the Seattle game.
“This was a situation where instead of sending him home to Dallas, we brought him to Houston to give him a couple of days to see how he felt and we did a test on him before the game and he just couldn’t go.”
X. FCD had two options ready if John couldn’t start.
“We had Bobby Warshaw ready to go if George wasn’t able to start, and our second thought was if George couldn’t go, we could bring him on as a sub if we needed and this would have been the game to bring him on.”
XI. Warshaw, a three-year captain at Stanford University, made his first career start at center back and performed admirably.
“I thought he did very well. This was not a normal game. It was pretty chippy, pretty physical and a lot of aerial battles. I thought he withstood the pressure and kept his composure.”
