FRISCO, Texas — In our weekly feature starring Schellas Hyndman, the FC Dallas head coach addresses 11 topics in brief including last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Chivas USA, the return of Maykel Galindo and Zach Loyd’s hard-working personality.
I. First things first: FC Dallas returned to their winning ways Saturday night at the Home Depot Center, defeating Chivas USA 2-1 on the strength of goals from Brek Shea and Jackson Gonçalves.
“I thought the game was quite an action game,” Hyndman said. “It was really a game where I think it brought the best out of both teams and I thought our guys had a lot to do.”
II. With the three points, FCD successfully wiped away the remnants of their 4-1 defeat to Sporting Kansas City from the previous weekend.
“This was a game for us to kind of get back on track. As I mentioned to the guys, the most important game is the game after that performance.”
III. Hyndman gave Chivas USA credit for making life difficult on the pitch.
“We competed and we had scoring opportunities, so saying that, I was really impressed with Chivas. They caused us a lot of problems early. We shifted to a 4-5-1 and we were plugged up in the midfield.”
IV. Los Rojiblancos scored a 71st-minute equalizer right when Hyndman and his coaching staff decided to bring on utility man Jackson.
“The decision was just made that we were going to bring Jackson on and then they scored, and as it turned out, great timing.”
V. The 23-year-old Brazilian notched his first career MLS goal in the 85th minute. Hyndman explained his logic behind the substitution.
“We brought him on the field because we took [Fabián] Castillo off and we wanted somebody quick up front, so we moved [Marvin] Chávez over there.”
VI-VII. Loyd started at right back and played the full 90 minutes despite a shin contusion.
“It’s one of big reasons why we spend so much time identifying people's character before we draft them.
“We did a background check and everyone that we talked to including his college coach, Elmar [Bolowich] from [the University of North Carolina], couldn’t say enough about his character. I think what you’re seeing now is a player that shows up every day at practice and goes hard.”
VIII-IX. Returning to the pitch for the first time since April 17 was former Chivas USA star Galindo.
“It was really unfortunate that he picked up that plantar fasciitis because I really thought he was just on the verge of getting on the field, and so that set him back five or six weeks.
“We took him on this trip realizing that he played in LA, played with Chivas, and it was a great motivation for him. I was glad I was able to get him on the field.”
X-XI. Hyndman has been impressed with midfielder Andrew Jacobson since Day 1 after he joined FCD from the Philadelphia Union this preseason.
“Andrew’s been great. Checking into personality and character I spent probably around three hours on the phone with his college coach before we made the trade.
“He and Daniel Hernandez are becoming quite a duo. The two of them are hard to beat. They are finding ways to stop opponents and then of course the two assists he got the other day were huge.”
