EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Schellas Hyndman won plenty of games during his prestigious college coaching career, 466 to be exact, but he will have to wait a while for his first win in the pros.
Hyndman’s debut as FC Dallas coach finished the way many of his new team’s games have been ending, with few scoring chances and a loss. The New York Red Bulls limited the visitors to four shots and rode a first-half header from Kevin Goldthwaite to a 1-0 Major League Soccer win in front of 16,427 at Giants Stadium.FC Dallas lost for the third time in four matches, fell to 2-6-2 in the past 10 and dropped to 1-4-2 overall on the road.In a physical game that saw 31 fouls called, FC Dallas (4-6-4) was outhustled and outworked by a feisty Red Bulls team playing without star forward Juan Pablo Angel and former U.S. national team captain Claudio Reyna, who were both out with injuries."It wasn’t the way I had it planned in my head but [New York] did something about it," Hyndman said. "I thought that [the Red Bulls] played extremely hard, with a lot of intensity and a lot of energy, something that every coach wants their team to do.""For us, and for me as a coach, it was a first game and I don’t think we played to our best," Hyndman said. "It gives me an opportunity to evaluate the players and see what we need to work on."The former SMU coach, who coached the Mustangs for 24 of his 31 seasons in the collegiate ranks, was hired by FC Dallas on Tuesday, which didn’t give Hyndman much time to get to know his new team."It is tough, I’m still getting to know the players’ names," Hyndman said. "The situation is we’ve only had a couple of days of training, and trying to instill some ideas. It’s going to take time to get those ideas across."He added: "It is tough, especially in midseason. The team’s already a third of the way into the season and as a coach you’re trying to make it better without ever having a chance to select your players or to take them through some type of preseason."The Red Bulls (5-4-4) scored in the 16th minute when defender Kevin Goldthwaite headed home a corner kick from Sinisa Ubiparipovic. FC Dallas managed just one shot on goal in each half, with Andre Rocha forcing a diving save from Red Bulls goalkeeper Jon Conway in the 68th minute.FC Dallas’ Kenny Cooper, the club’s leading scorer, was held without a shot on goal."Obviously it’s not the result we wanted, but we’ve got a big game on Thursday," Cooper said, referring to a match with the Houston Dynamo in Houston. "We’ve got to go back home and put some work in and be ready to get a great result against Houston."ONLINE: www.fcdallas.netHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
