One of the first times that I interviewed Dwayne DeRosario was when he'd just finished playing for Canada in a scoreless draw versus the U.S.
Since the announcement had just been made about Toronto, I asked him if he was going to play there.
He admitted that it would be nice and mentioned that he considered it his hometown.
When Kasey Keller mentioned recently that he was less inclined to take a pay cut to come to MLS because no team existed near his own hometown in the Pacific Northwest, it reminded me, of all things, of DeRosario, who is at a contract impasse with Houston.
It might be that DeRosario would take less money to play for Toronto. It might also be that Houston picked up Richard Mulrooney precisely on that basis - Mulrooney wanted to be near family in Texas. He could provide cover in the midfield if DeRosario does go to Toronto one day.
3 comments:
Hang on...Did I miss something? Is Mulrooney on the Dynamo now, or did I completely misunderstand that last paragraph?
DeRosario to to Toronto would give them a real upgrade. I'm curious about his options given his age and the MLS contract structure.
This was one of those win-win deals: TFC gets some help and a promising young player on defense, for Houston this is awesome -- they can play DeRo at forward with Mulrooney playing box-to-box (less wear and tear for DeRo). The only downside is for Toronto, where a veteran presence in the midfield would be lost. I am a bit puzzled that TFC signed RM in the first place, given his wish to remain close to home (the reason why he was earlier traded from San Jose to FCD).
Houston would do fine this year, but they really need to improve their depth in defense -- Waibel and Barrett are aging, and the only consistent thing about Gray and Cochrane is their inconsistency.
For his sake and TFC's sake, I hope DeRo gets traded to TFC, even if it is mid-year (the Chronicle has reported that DeRo is unhappy with his $167K paycheck in Houston). He has certainly shown that he can be the cohesive force in a team-in-building: when Donovan left and Agoos retired, DeRo stepped up his work rate, became a less selfish player and was pivotal to the Quakes' quick turnaround.
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