Thierry Henry about DeRo: "Best player he's seen in MLS"

[MontrealVs]

pretty intersting read, Henry has played a lot of soccer and clearly knows talent when he sees it. Quite the praise he gives Dero in this article.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/soccerblog/the_derosario_blunder_Wl42RVPXFvXpU38zeFs4AJ

[ThiKu]

The cynic in me wonders if it's a dig at the NYRB management for letting such a good player go and thinking "if we had DeRo maybe I get more room to score goals and we are in the MLS final....".....

But yes, DeRo has been a stud in MLS.

[xcalibre]

Unless he was willing to take a massive salary cut to accomodate Dero's wages, it's pretty much a moot point...

[Lordsnooty]

MLS All Time Leading Scorers:

Player POS GP GS MINS G A SHTS SOG GWG PKG/A HmG RdG G/90min SC%

Jeff Cunningham F 365 233 22751 134 70 772 372 40 20/23 77 57 0.53 17.4

Jaime Moreno F 340 295 25792 133 102 684 394 26 44/52 83 50 0.46 19.4

Landon Donovan M 255 237 21815 115 94 536 293 32 26/29 67 48 0.47 21.5

Ante Razov F 262 229 20357 114 66 926 441 33 13/16 60 54 0.50 12.3

Jason Kreis M 305 282 25242 108 74 818 370 31 10/13 66 42 0.39 13.2

Taylor Twellman F 174 163 15046 101 28 557 318 28 3/5 57 44 0.60 18.1

Dwayne De Rosario M 274 228 20885 93 63 692 309 25 13/17 47 46 0.40 13.4

[jonovision]

MLS All Time Leading Scorers:

Player POS GP GS MINS G A SHTS SOG GWG PKG/A HmG RdG G/90min SC%

Jeff Cunningham F 365 233 22751 134 70 772 372 40 20/23 77 57 0.53 17.4

Jaime Moreno F 340 295 25792 133 102 684 394 26 44/52 83 50 0.46 19.4

Landon Donovan M 255 237 21815 115 94 536 293 32 26/29 67 48 0.47 21.5

Ante Razov F 262 229 20357 114 66 926 441 33 13/16 60 54 0.50 12.3

Jason Kreis M 305 282 25242 108 74 818 370 31 10/13 66 42 0.39 13.2

Taylor Twellman F 174 163 15046 101 28 557 318 28 3/5 57 44 0.60 18.1

Dwayne De Rosario M 274 228 20885 93 63 692 309 25 13/17 47 46 0.40 13.4

Do you have a link? The cut and paste unfortunately makes this rather difficult to read.

[jpg75]

MLS All Time Leading Scorers:

Player G A

Jeff Cunningham 134 70

Jaime Moreno 133 102

Landon Donovan 115 94

Ante Razov 114 66

Jason Kreis 108 74

Taylor Twellman 101 28

Dwayne De Rosario 93 63

I cut out all the waste and left Goals and Assists...

[Gordon]

And yet it is Brek Shea or whatever his name is, that Arsenal are looking at this week.

[Grizzly]

And yet it is Brek Shea or whatever his name is, that Arsenal are looking at this week.

Well Shea is 12 years younger than DeRo. And I doubt Henry has ever seen DeRo play internationally or at any other level than MLS. If he had I think he would be far less impressed because he would also see the many flaws in his game that are not apparent in MLS. I am sure any big European team interested in him would look closely at how he has played when not in MLS. If DeRo even came close to performing for the national team the way he does in MLS I would be his biggest fan. And I have said before I think DeRo had the raw talent to be an excellent player in a top league like the EPL or La Liga if he had stuck it out in Europe and got the right training and competition. However, spending his whole career in MLS has made him into a classic 2nd division player who can not play at a higher level. He is like the guy who consistently scores 50 goals a year in the AHL but can't stick with a team in the NHL.

[James]

Hey, Grizzly, take a hike.

Your opinion of DDR is uneducated, biased and just plain ridiculous. As poorly as you think he's been for Canada, he's on the verge of breaking the all-time goal record for our national team. All one has to do is look at the hi-light reel of his career to see the quality of his play, his assists, his team success, and his individual success as an MLS star, an international, and as a team mate. The MLS has produced some fine international players, the list is too long to start but lets just for fun, throw Landycakes out there. Sure, he plays for a superior national team but he's not the player DeRo has been. In fact I don't think he's won an MLS Cup since DDR was setting him up. Is Landon Donovan a classic second division player too? I suppose Henry is a second division player too? And Beckham for the past 5 years? DeRo has outshone these three guys and basically everyone else in the MLS too.

He made a choice to stick it out in the MLS and NOT go to europe. Other than early in his career, he never really gave europe serious consideration. His latest venture was to Celtic and they loved him. I think Man City, years ago, were interested but he wanted to stay over here. It's just ignorant to demean his MLS success right now. I don't think many others have meant as much to the success of the MLS on the pitch than DeRosario has.

Henry said that DDR was the best in the MLS and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. He played with him, trained with him and got set up by him and later on after the trade, burned by him. NYRB went on the skids for a bit after the DC move and if you watched the games, not having the #10 role filled was a big reason.

Dwayne DeRosario is a world class player, and one of a handful of MLS players who could successfully make that claim.

Grizzly, for a Canadian soccer supporter, I'd expect a little more appreciation of one of our greatest players.

For the record, Break Shea, is a helluva player and if he doesn't end up in europe, he's gonna own the MLS in a year or two. The kid is a stud. Mind you, there's a young Canadian player at TFC who destroyed him and frustrated him in the Champions League recently.

This year, it's gotta be DeRo for MVP and the voting shouldn't be close. I'm with Thierry Henry on that one.

[jonovision]

^ Grizzly is far from alone in being circumspect regarding De Ro's contributions in a Canada shirt in the past.

[James]

^ Grizzly is far from alone in being circumspect regarding De Ro's contributions in a Canada shirt in the past.

Fair enough but, are we gonna call out everyone on the national team now and belittle every Canadian players accomplishments? We haven't had a lot to cheer about lately but to say that DDR is comparable to a career minor leaguer is a bloody insult. And ignorant as all hell.

[tmcmurph]

He has always answered the call for us even when it may have cost him his place in a NYRB jersey. He has pitched "play for Canada" to all players who have options that he could speak to. He has scored for us more than any player of his generation. He has scored in MLS repeatedly at or near the top of the league. He has been MVP several times for both regular and playoff. His record speaks for itself and I for one am a huge fan.

Yes his "I dare you to stop me" style of play can backfire and it is painful to watch when it does but damn is it fun to watch when he is on his game. Yes he has deficiencies in his game but who doesn't?

We should be proud that a European legend thinks so highly of him and we should all pull for him to get MVP.

Cheers.

[trueviking]

agreed...i really dont get the dero hatred...it seems to be based on something other than his play.

he is the one bit of creativity on the team.....the same was true for TFC.

i wish he would have gone to europe, but being one of the best players in any league in the world is an accomplishment for a canadian....it should not be diminished.

[Lord Bob]

He has always answered the call for us even when it may have cost him his place in a NYRB jersey.

2009 Gold Cup.

[Fort York Redcoat1555362293]

His stats and individual performance is not in question to me and I congratulate him on the golden boot but I disagree with him earning a most valuable player in the league. Value is more than stats.

Can't wait for him to be the best all time for our country on Tues.

[loyola]

He has always answered the call for us even when it may have cost him his place in a NYRB jersey.

To answer this cliché I say let's not forget 2008 when DeRo and Brennan called it quit before the team was eliminated. Poor form.

As for his contribution for the MNT, I can't blame Grizzly for his opinion, if it wasn't for DeRo taking PK for us he would be scoreless in his last 15 games (last time he scored in open play was in 2008 against SVG). IMO, he's been an average performer for us.

In MLS, his performances have usually been excellent but sadly he never been the star he is in MLS with the MNT.

For the record, Brek Shea is a superb player. I would take such a player with Canada anyday.

[canucklefan]

agreed...i really dont get the dero hatred...it seems to be based on something other than his play.

he is the one bit of creativity on the team.....the same was true for TFC.

i wish he would have gone to europe, but being one of the best players in any league in the world is an accomplishment for a canadian....it should not be diminished.

DeRo already tried to establish himself in Germany in 1997-99 but he failed. If I remember one of Grizzly posts, it seems part of the problem was his attitude issues which ultimately affected his development as a player (sorry Grizzly if I misquoted you). When you add to the list his attitude issues with TFC, I can't blame some of us CNMT fans for criticizing DeRo.

Also, criticizing a player for his performances in the field does not mean you hate him. Love/hate has nothing to do here. It seems a bad habit from many people here to defend the players by pointing the critics as haters, which is unfair IMO.

BTW, congrats to DeRo for his great MLS season this year.

[Grizzly]

I will give DeRo full credit for what he has done in MLS. In MLS he is a superstar. For the national team he has been a dud and when playing at the international level (which against the better teams in CONCACAF is a much higher level of play than MLS) he shows all the bad habits he has picked up in MLS. As I said before DeRo was highly talented and could have been a top level player had he received the right training and played against top players. He had many chances in Europe but always turned them down or left at the first adversity. He even had FC Barcelona and AC Milan interested in him as a youth player and turned down a contract offer from Milan for "personal reasons". Maybe they were serious personal reasons but it really seems like just one more decision in a long trend of decisions. Even a few years ago he turned down an EPL contract because it was only for 6 months. He always took the easy way to success and played in the league he could dominate in without much effort. Stalteri achieved far more than DeRo in his career with not even half the talent. If you combined the brain and character of Stalteri with the talent and body of DeRo, Canada would have its first world class soccer player.

I say again he is the classic 50 goal a year AHL player who can't play in the NHL, a 2nd tier star who can't hack it in the 1st tier. And with the proper training he could have played and even been a star in a top league. But in MLS he gets a lot of room and time. His first touch is terrible and he is terrible at receiving passes but when the ball bounces off his foot in MLS most of the time no one challenges him for it and he gets it again. Against Honduras he is stripped of the ball immediately. Indeed even the St. K and N players were doing this because despite the fact they could hardly play soccer they were fast and had quick reflexes so DeRo was losing the ball against them (but they usually kicked it out instead of retaining possession) and had great difficulty taking them on one on one because they were able to stick with him. He has never had a manager who has really tried to instill some positional discipline in him or make him develop his tactical sense. The one man show works for him in MLS. It does not work for him internationally. And when his one man show is not working or in other words when he is not scoring he is usually a waste of space on the field.

Just look at his goal scoring record for Canada. Look at his CSA profile and click on goals so you can see a listing of all the goals he has scored: http://www.canadasoccer.com/players/profile.asp?sort=7d&playerid=6&tab=games As Loyola pointed out he has not scored for us other than a penalty since 2008. The majority of his goals especially those not in friendly games have been scored against minnows. We needed him many times to come up big for us in important games against decent competition in WCQ. Yet his output in this type of game is a measly 1 goal against Costa Rica. Yes DeRo has only scored one goal for Canada when it really mattered.

[ThiKu]

How about this be re-focused...

Henry didn't say "DeRo is one of the best I have ever seen." He said DeRo is "the best MLS player he has seen." (Probs excluding himself and maybe a dig at Becks and Landy following the MLS game....)....

For the record Becks is probs only a "top 5 all-time" MLS player if that....though his performances this year and last have been quite good - especially recently and this year.

DeRo has been an exceptional MLS player and I find it unfortunate he hasn't made it in Europe and won't.