As he celebrated with players and coaches after winning the 2006 MLS Cup title, Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear's eyes filled with tears.
It was a strange sensation for a man more gruff than gentle, more prone to showing his players love with a biting joke than a hug.
Enjoying his first title as an MLS coach, Kinnear was overcome with bittersweet feelings. Still mourning the 2004 death of his mother, Mary, and the 2005 death of his father Hugh, he regretted not having them to share the moment.
Kinnear, 44, has come a long way since his parents died during his first two seasons as coach of the San Jose Earthquakes. On Nov. 20, he'll attempt to become the first coach in Major League Soccer to win three MLS Cup titles.
To do that, the Dynamo must beat the Los Angeles Galaxy to deny Bruce Arena his chance to become the league's first coach with three titles.
History will be made at Home Depot Center when Kinnear or Arena gets that third MLS title.
"There have been a lot of coaches that have had great success in the league's brief history," Arena said. "We're not talking about the Vince Lombardis and that kind of thing because we're still a league that's in its infancy. But in the short history of this league, certainly Dom is one of the most successful."
When considering the greatest coaches in the league's 16-year history, no list is complete without Arena, 60, or Kinnear.
Rock of MLS
To Kinnear, Arena is more than just a great coach. In Kinnear's opinion, Arena is one of the reasons MLS survived through the rough early years and thrives now.
"In the first years when MLS started, he was the guy," Kinnear said of Arena. "A great coach. His team plays great soccer. If you think what he did with the national team, the World Cup teams, there's a wonderful record there. He goes back to MLS, and he makes two finals in the last three years.
"Undoubtedly, he's an outstanding coach who gets the best out of his players. He's successful and his record speaks for itself. And away from the field, he's a very nice man."
When Arena won the league's first two titles in 1996 and 1997 with D.C. United, few could have predicted that in 2011 there would be 18 teams in the league with Montreal joining in 2012.
More recently, few could have imagined Arena would transform the toxic clubhouse environment he inherited in Los Angeles when AEG president Tim Leiweke signed him in hopes of aligning the stars, mainly David Beckham and Landon Donovan.
"Bruce saved us," Leiweke said. "We were in a bad spot. We had a lot of dissension in the organization. We got rid of the entire leadership and we were in a mess. I knew he was the guy we needed in L.A. Bruce has taken complete control in this organization. He brought a sense of focus and discipline for an organization that needed it. We're a team now, not a bunch of individuals."
Kinnear in control
AEG, which owns 100 percent of the Galaxy and 50 percent of the Dynamo, also has given Kinnear essentially complete authority over player personnel issues.
In 2004, Kinnear inherited a veteran team that had won the 2003 MLS Cup title. He had spent the previous three seasons as an assistant to his mentor Frank Yallop, who is one of four men who have won two MLS Cup titles.
Once Yallop left San Jose to become coach of the Canadian national team, Kinnear took over and stumbled a bit in 2004, which he considers one of his most difficult seasons. Although the Earthquakes reached the playoffs in 2004, they underachieved.
A year later, Kinnear led San Jose to the Supporters' Shield for the best overall record in the league.
Then in 2006 and 2007, he won consecutive MLS Cup titles in the Dynamo's first two seasons.
Arena cleaned up a mess and won the past two Supporters' Shields; Kinnear rebuilt his roster since failing to reach the playoffs for the first time in his career as a coach last year.
"They are very similar, and I'm prejudiced in that I think they're the two best coaches in MLS," Leiweke said. "Dom and this team, talk about chemistry. A blue-collar, hardworking group of guys that have overcome every obstacle."
Kinnear specializes in overcoming obstacles.
If he sheds tears of joy Nov. 20, he'll likely be thinking about his parents just as he was on the night he won his first MLS Cup title.
Heartfelt moment
"It was one of the few times after a game where I kind of welled up and just thought of something else besides soccer because I knew deep down that if my parents were still alive they would have been here for the opening day and they would have been in Dallas for the (2006) final," he said. "I'm sure they were very happy and proud that the team won, but sometimes you want to be a little selfish and want to celebrate with them in person."
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