Yesterday, Toronto FC midfielder Dwayne De Rosario was named into this year's MLS Starting XI. It is the dynamic Scarborough native's fourth time on the year end honours and the third club he has done it with. Most notably, his appearance is the first for any TFC player.
While De Rosario is enough of a fan favourite, mostly from being local, it is fair to say that his star has yet to rise to high enough levels in Toronto. TFC without De Ro is a shockingly poor scenario. Where would this team have been this season with his 11 goals and game changing plays?
Expectations were indeed very high when De Ro arrived last winter and were perhaps too high. The midfielder has an abundance of talent but was often stymied by the lack of equal skill around him. The natural attacking midfielder was forced into scenarios where he had to shift to the wing or move far forward to compensate for Toronto's impotent strikers. The fact that he had to do so much heavy lifting actually caused him to be the target of criticism from some of BMO's less enlightened mob.
Hopefully this season's accolades will be enough to persuade The Reds' supporters to get behind De Ro more fervently than they did this year. He is after all a very rare commodity in today's professional game - a local boy who is not only the best on the team but one of the best in the league. It's time for De Ro to get the same treatment reserved for Danny Dichio. It's time to embrace the present and our best player in the club's history.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
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DeRo is the best thing to ever happen to Canadian soccer period. He has the look, the skill and the damn heart. He definitely doesn't get the recognition he deserves. I blame the small minded TFC Front office and MLSE lack of having a successful team and a country club mentality for all of this.
ReplyDeleteHell, DeRo could probably run for mayor and do a better job than half these politicians.
I love the MO(VE)OUT Campaign but I must say I like the sound of No MO(RE)