For the longest time I never thought I'd be saying Dwayne De Rosario was potentially a problem, but it started occuring to me after watching the two Canada games in early September. The first game against Peru, I thought Canada really didn't play well, but De Rosario was the best of a bad bunch. In the second game though, after he'd been released to play for TFC, Canada played with different players, a different formation and looked like a much better team. But still, I couldn't really bring myself to follow through on that line of thinking, after all, though his play can certainly be selfish at times he's by far TFC's leading scorer, and the main counter argument? The 4 MLS championships he won with San Jose/Houston clearly show he's not a team killer.
So, even after the Preki firing, though I wasn't happy that management had apparently made him part of an untouchable clique that contributed to Preki's demise, I mainly read the debates about his future with interest rather than piling on the criticism. However his goal celebration yesterday, to me a disgracefully timed gesture from the captain of a side fighting for it's playoff life and post match comments, reinforced the notion of De Rosario as a selfish player who may actually be hurting the team.
Within those debates, someone compared De Rosario to Steven Gerrard of Liverpool and England, and to me it's a perfect comparison. It was certainly intended as a compliment, and in many very positive ways, there's a correlation between the two of them. Gerrard is a very talented player, captain of his hometown team, and with a very clear will to win. He has had moments of absolute brilliance where he's put the team on his back and won games all by himself, often very important games, for example, the 2005 Champions league final, and the 2006 F.A cup final. He is arguably the best player at Liverpool, and immensely valuable on and off the pitch. He has (by the standards Liverpool demand) a less than stellar supporting cast and is very worthy of the argument "can you imagine where we'd be without him?" All of these things could equally be said of De Rosario, and yet there's counter arguments that also apply.
Though Gerrard has been instrumental in the triumphs Liverpool have had in the 10 years or so since he became a regular, have Liverpool as a team met the expectations of everyone at the club during that time? Given their history and stature, I'm sure no-one would have been satisfied if told their championship drought would continue throughout Gerrard's time at Liverpool, or that Manchester United would pull level with their record number of first division/Premier league titles. While they are still a team to be reckoned with on any given day, and have had some great cup runs, when it comes to any club's bread and butter, the league, they have only finished in the top 2 twice during Gerrard's career, and last year fell as far as 7th.
Similarly, while TFC's Voyageur cup wins and this years Concacaf Champions league run have been fun, qualification for the playoffs is what most fans yearn for, and that isn't going to happen for the second consecutive year of the De Rosario era.
As well, Gerrard has had contract negotiations with Liverpool dragged out in the press which have almost led him to leave the club until he got the "respect" he believed was his due, leading to his Stevie G nickname being subverted to $tevie Me. De Rosario certainly seems to be going down this path now and who knows where that will end in his case. The "Me Ro" tag surely can't be too far away.
While it would be churlish to suggest Liverpool's struggles are Gerrard's fault, people have suggested that it is Liverpool's reliance on him, and accomodation of his wholehearted, often brilliant, but at times selfish play and lack of tactical discipline that have stopped Liverpool growing into a team that could win the league. His struggles to combine well with Frank Lampard in England's midfield are also well documented and considered a big factor in the repeated failures of England's so called golden generation.
Similar criticisms have been voiced against De Rosario, though they are more easily muted with the fact that as part of a well put together team in San Jose/Houston, he was a very significant part of their success. It may well be that De Rosario is just the right player at the wrong time, and he certainly seems to be the wrong choice for the captain to lead the team through the current chaotic situation.
When he was made captain, the club and the line-up were in utter chaos, and with many senior players from the previous season gone, De Rosario was now clearly The Man, and as such had a chance to really put his stamp on this team, with many young players or players new to TFC ready to follow his example.
Though it would be an incredibly difficult task that probably very few players could do, the example I'd have liked to see him attempt to live up to is not Stevie G, but Stevie Y.
Steve Yzerman was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in 1983 and made captain in 1986, and was one of the most talented players of his era, sparking a revival of hockey in Detroit, and bringing respectability back to the team after the "Dead Wings" era. Captain, star player, and undeniably The Man, he WAS hockey in Detroit. Though the Red Wings were now a much better team, playoff success eluded them, until Yzerman and coach Scotty Bowman sat down for a conversation. Pierre LeBrun details the chat and the aftermath of that in the middle of this lookback on Yzerman's career as he was about to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"I (Bowman) called Steve in and I said, 'You have a lot of good individual stats, but if you don't play a lot more defense, then the rest of the guys will probably keep playing the way they are.'"
Yzerman bought in instantly. After all, the team had been stunned in first-round upsets to Toronto (1993) and San Jose (1994).With Yzerman, the captain, the star player, The Man, buying into the team first idea, his teammates had no choice but to fall in line, resulting in the Red Wing dynasty that has spanned 15 years now. His influence can still be felt even after his retirement with the play of current stars Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, as unselfish a combination of star players as can be found in the league. When his number was raised to the rafters in Detroit, a "C" was added to the banner to signify that he was forever "The Captain".
"At that time, I still felt we were a Stanley Cup contender and all I wanted to do was win," said Yzerman. "That was the time for me to show that I really meant that. So I was quite comfortable doing it and relished the opportunity, really."
Yzerman, who posted six consecutive 100-plus-point seasons from 1987-88 to 1992-93, would never surpass the 100-point plateau again in his career.
"You saw Steve, who was one of the premier offensive players in the game, accept sacrificing some offense, accept the fact that his name wouldn't be in the leading scorers, in order to be a shot-blocker, a guy that could win draws, be a good defensive forward, chipping the puck off the boards when that's the right play," said (Wings GM Ken)Holland. "His desire to accept that and commit is the reason we went from being a great offensive team and a real disappointing playoff team into being the Detroit Red Wings that won championships.
"When Steve made that sacrifice and that commitment to go from a great offensive player into being a great two-way player, that really set the standard for who we are today."
Now, I have no idea if Preki ever had any similar coversation with De Rosario, or how hard he tried to help implement the new, more defensive system Preki brought in, but his comments after Preki's firing don't suggest he was an enthusisatic disciple. His play througout the season was the same old De Ro, often trying to do too much himself (I'd certainly never accuse him of not caring or not trying), drifitng out of position, shooting from distance, not really using his teamamtes, what I think of as De Ro DIY mode. Here and there it can be very successful, winning TFC points out of games where the team played poorly, but does anyone think the team as a whole has made the necessary strides under his leadership to the consistent perfomances needed to regularly challenge for even a playoff spot?
This is De Rosario's first season as captain, so it would be too harsh to write him off completely, it's quite possible that with a new GM and coach coming in, who are hopefully better at the ego wrangling necessary with professional athletes, he could become an inspirational leader and take the team to some long overdue league success.
His actions on Saturday though, bringing a personal compensation issue out in to the public, at a crucial moment of a must win game, suggests he's got a long way to go. Those 18 letters between G and Y look like a very very big gap.
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