86 Forever: De Rosario Deserves Blame, Not Toronto FC
There are few people who enjoy needling anything Toronto more than 86 Forever's Benjamin Massey, and even he absolves Toronto FC of most blame in the still-developing Dwayne De Rosario situation. Toronto FC may be without clear leadership, but ultimately this is about a self-absorbed player, he says.
The only thing I can blame them for is bringing Dwayne De Rosario in at all: for making him their captain and promoting him as the face of the club when absolutely every soccer fan in North America knows that De Rosario is a magnificently talented player with an ego the size of Pearson International Airport, who takes any excuse he can get to stop using his teammates and run around looking for his own glory, who posts gaudy offensive numbers while seriously limiting the chances his strikers get, and who constantly preens for more attention and more money even at the most inappropriate moments. He has no conception of the team as anything other than a vessel to promote his own brand. While Canada’s women’s national soccer team is off winning trophies, he’s Tweeting about how people should come to some meet-and-greet with him.
De Rosario burst onto the MLS scene by helping lead the San Jose Earthquakes to the MLS Cup in 2001. Since then, he's contributed to three more MLS Cup titles (one more in San Jose and two with the Houston Dynamo). He's also registered 77 goals and 51 assists, good for a 1.02 points per 90 minutes over his MLS career.
While his numbers have remained good since the Ontario native has joined Toronto FC, the winning has not followed. The Reds have never made the playoffs, something he’s been unable to change in his two years there despite registered 26 goals and nine assists. Maybe he’s not the problem, but he definitely doesn’t seem to be the solution, either.
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