DeRo is praying for Canada. And DC United, but for now let’s focus on Canada.
In a wide reaching interview with the Sporting News, De Rosario talked about his year ahead and where he sees his place in the game now. The question of his alleged poor attitude and prima donna-ness was brought up. As always, he said he was misunderstood and that he just wanted to be respected.
You can read the full interview, which is mostly MLS focused, here. In it, DeRo says that this summer’s qualifying games are “more than huge.” An obvious statement, but one that is nice to hear DeRo say.
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It’s a message many don’t want to hear, but DeRo is disrespected by many. Early in his MLS career he was criminally underpaid and he is the subject of borderline irrational criticism by fans of the Canadian national team.
Despite being a regular contributor to the cause for years, some national team supporters can’t get past the fact that he asked to be left out of the Gold Cup roster in 2009 – the useless version of the competition where there is nothing on the line but pride and a player’s place in his club team.
Criticism of DeRo at that time was mostly split along club loyalty lines. The man is from Toronto, after all. Regional pettiness runs deep in Canada.
If you were to have a look at the Voyageur discussion boards you would see a great deal of people advocating for DeRo to play a limited role in Canada’s World Cup qualifying attempts. To those fans, leaving one of the most dynamic offensive players in MLS history out of the line-up makes more sense than trying to find a way for the national team to get him better service.
Those fans also believe to the depth of their souls that DeRo doesn’t give the national team his full effort. They take isolated moments from a game and extrapolate them over a full 90 – full career, really.
The accusations are baseless, of course. There are things to critique about his game, but effort is not one.
The bottom line for Canada is that it needs DeRo to match his MLS output if it is to have any chance of advancing.
Period.
End of story.