Last season, former Eastern soccer coach Schellas Hyndman’s Major League Soccer club missed the playoffs by four points and only managed to win nine matches over the course of a 34-match season.

It is a story that is not dissimilar to the fate of today’s Eastern soccer team.

Eastern coach Adam Howarth’s 3-13-1 Panthers struggled to score goals and only won once on the road.

The major league team FC Dallas only managed to win three times on the road in 14 matches.  

However, this season, Hyndman has managed to steer FC Dallas into the lead of the Western Conference and is unbeaten at home this season.

FC Dallas recently defeated the 2012 Western Conference champions, the San Jose Earthquakes, 1-0.  

The obvious question lies in how exactly a coach turns a team around in a single season.  

How does a college coach influence a team in a way to facilitate such a dramatic change in less than a year?

It takes a bit of luck, some shrewd player selection and tactics designed specifically to beat teams in areas key to winning collegiate soccer matches. 

FC Dallas focused on the tactics that make a team successful in the MLS.  They managed to find a lineup that could consistently pass the ball up from the back and connect in the midfield.  All the top teams in the league possess this quality.  

The LA Galaxy, the Seattle Sounders, the New York Red Bull, Sporting KC and other top MLS squads all have players that move off the ball well when their defense manages to win back possession.  

For Eastern, this is not as straight forward.  It is not so easy to find great talent with a limited recruiting pool.  However, a tactical change that focuses on what is necessary to win in the OVC will allow the Panthers to find success at the collegiate level.

As far as a recruiting pool is concerned, Hyndman’s FC Dallas has in no way used a single talisman player to galvanize their attack.

Following U.S. international Brek Shea’s move to English Premier league team Stoke City, FC Dallas focused on capitalizing on set pieces.  In the first eight matches of the season, FC Dallas grabbed five goals from corners and free kicks.

The ability to convert on set pieces is essential to success at the top level of professional soccer where the ability to do the little things right is ultimately the difference between a winning and a losing season.

In college soccer, the focus is less detail oriented but instead focuses on big ideas like efficient use of possession and the ability to move off the ball to find holes in the defense.  

The principle remains the same.

The Panthers can take a sheet out of their former coach’s book by searching for the players and tactics that will give them an edge in the areas which make a difference.

Finding players who have individual skill is important but by searching for players that allow them to find success in the areas that are key to winning OVC soccer matches will be the players who are most valuable to the ultimate success of the team.