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There has been a lot of talk about how it would be unprecedented for a player who has featured on three clubs to be voted for MLS Most Valuable Player. I’m going to tell you right now that that should not factor in any significant way into voting for Dwayne De Rosario for MLS MVP.
Why? Because there’s plenty of players who stuck on one club throughout the year that will not and should not be considered for the award. If you cannot use the number of clubs to decide who should win, then you cannot reasonably use it as a way of excusing a player. It makes absolutely no sense to do so, especially when the Most Valuable Player award is really an award for individual achievement amongst a player during the MLS season.
But even if we were to accept the argument that playing for three clubs should factor into the decision over whether De Rosario deserves the MVP award, I would argue that playing for three clubs and being the top leader in goals and fourth in assists in Major League Soccer should be something in his favour.
How often have people made the argument that players need time to settle in at their new club and that’s the reason why they’re not producing? Too often if you ask me.
Dwayne has either proven to be the exception to that rule or proof that the rule is completely bunk. I like to think the latter. A quality player should be able to join a squad, step in and create results. That is what Dwayne De Rosario has done with New York and DC United this year. He has gone in, he has created goals and assists and improved the players around him.
Some will question the fact that DC United didn’t make playoffs and neither did Toronto (although if you’re going to judge De Ro on the fact that a team that barely used him didn’t make playoffs, you have nothing to stand on). New York did however, and gained crucial points in that run when De Rosario was with them.
But really, if making playoffs is a huge portion of the MVP award, why isn’t Todd Dunivant or one of the other LA Galaxy defenders in this picture? After all, if playoffs is a huge component (like playing for 1 club), surely someone who was crucial in keeping goals out of the net for the top team in the league should be in consideration? But they aren’t. The reason why they aren’t is because the award is an award given out on an /individual/ basis and not based on the results of a team.
When it comes down to individual performance, it is absolutely impossible to ignore the fact that Dwayne overcame a spat with management in Toronto, a team that couldn’t afford to keep him (however much they wanted to) in New York and a third relocation to Washington, D.C. In the process of overcoming these obstacles, Dwayne De Rosario scored no fewer than 16 goals and 12 assists.
You might ask, why is it called the Most /Valuable/ Player award then?
The answer is simple. The MLS MVP award is, at the end of the day, awarded to the Most Valuable Player to the League, and not to any single individual player. Who creates the most excitement on the pitch? Who is the player that, when his team is down, always has that chance to pull them up and drag them over the finish line for a draw or a comeback victory?
This year the player who demonstrated, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he could fulfill the role of MLS MVP. The man who creates the most excitement and who was “The Face of the League” for 2011 was Dwayne De Rosario. He was the epitome of individual achievement and production of entertainment value for fans.
Perhaps the best testimony in favour of Dwayne De Rosario for the MLS MVP award came from former teammate Thierry Henry.
As quoted in the New York Daily News: “In this league I haven’t seen anybody better than Dwayne de Rosario,” Henry said Tuesday. “For me, he’s the face of this league. You always need a Dwayne de Rosario in your squad. We had him, and he went for the reasons the boss knows and the organization, but you always need a guy like that around.”
If Dwayne De Rosario isn’t announced as Major League Soccer’s Most Valuable Player, I will be shocked, but not too shocked. There are people who will view it as a team award, despite my arguments against. But at the end of the day, he is who should win the award, regardless of whether he does.
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