In many ways, Dwayne De Rosario is the perfect representative of the current iteration of the Canadian mens national soccer team. He can’t track back. He can’t run forward on the counter. He has poor positional sense. He isn’t effective on the wing. He lacks instinct in defense.
He’s also a born goal-scorer and a former Major League Soccer Most Valuable Player, one of Canada’s biggest talents in decades, perhaps ever. He is Canada’s best player, and its most frustrating. Without him we can’t score; with him, we’re vulnerable.
He’s also set to miss the next 12 weeks with a knee injury, which means he won’t be available when Canada determines its World Cup future with home-and-away fixtures against Cuba and Honduras respectively on October 12th and 16th.
It would be pro forma to write that the news is “devastating,” but tactically-speaking, it shouldn’t be. Canada has been relatively adept at preventing goals (last Tuesday excepted—work on getting your defenders marking the posts, Hart), but has been woeful scoring them. That has to change, and hoping that DeRo sort of just “pulls it out” eventually isn’t going to work.
The wide players need to cut in and shoot. Whomever is coaching wide players, whether David Edgar or Simeon Jackson, to simply cross the ball from wherever after several decent spells in possession in the opposition half, needs to cut that shit out. Olivier Occean needs to strike if he’s going to play as a striker.
The days of simply staring wide-eyed at Mr. Record Breaker in hopes of some magic are behind this team.
Agree completely. Having him ruled out for the next two games might be a blessing in disguise. Besides, we only need to score 1 goal to get to the Hex.
Ding ding ding
Thank you
I’m at work and hence have no time to research this, but I have the vague feeling that a lot of DeRo’s Canada goals have been either via penalties or against minnow opposition. Even the one against Panama last week was kind of a flukely. I can’t remember the last time he scored an important goal from open play in a big match, although I may just be misremembering.
I’m no DeRo hater, and I’d rather see him in the squad, but is it possible we’re slightly overstating his importance?
I agree to an extent, BUT that’s who we generally play as national teams.
This team isn’t blessed with very much offensive talent. He’s still important IMO.
Dero’s goals are in his wiki page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwayne_De_Rosario
I wish I had analytics to prove this, but I think it is fair to say his shooting % is very low, and for our amazing goal scorer to have 20 goals in 70 games with a low shooting % isnt THAT big of a deal. Sure our options are limited but Canada can make due…
Ali Gerba has not been in the squad for the last year or so, and he has been much more prolific, and we have found ways to find the net.
It stinks that a goal scorer is gone, but having a black hole on the field for 89min does not help our team out.
I agree, he’s not that potent, but I don’t think that number of shots stat does guys a lot of justice. It’s basically a loss of possession, no different than a bad pass or getting tackled.
I’d got with goals per 90 minutes. Doesn’t matter how you get there, just put up the numbers.
Let’s call Gerba in to the squad to replace DeRo
Bring back Rob Friend.
We definitely need Friend back playing striker. Hopefully he gets capped before the next two games.
You’re being a bit rough on DeRosario considering that he’s more of an attacking midfielder than a striker or winger for team Canada. He’s already playing out of position and filling in a role that could easily be taken over by Simpson or deJong. There’s depth in those positions.
I find it hard to believe that you chose to write about DeRosario instead of the real problem for CMNT which is our goalkeeper Hirschfeld.
“Canada needs to break its Hirschfeld dependence” would have made for a better title and topic, because this was the reason the team went down 2-0 in Panama and you could say that a lack of ability prevented him from making the stop on the first goal even though it was a gaff to leave only one player on the post.
I like DeRo and want him back as soon as he’s healthy again, but I’d like to see them bring in a young player in his absence. Lucas Cavallini or Randy Edwini-Bonsu could be good.
It comes down to our goals, I think. If we want in the World Cup, right now for 2014, then DeRo is the best option. If we want to develop talent and get ready for 2018 then we can put DeRo on the bench and develop those players. A little from column A, and a little from column B would work as well, but the middle road will likely not get us both or either result.