DeRo steals the show in his New York return

Dwayne De Rosario sure made a statement on Saturday. Canada’s best-ever MLS player returned to Red Bull Arena Saturday, just a couple of weeks after he was dealt from New York to D.C. United. And he said “did you miss me?” in the most emphatic way possible. He scored the second-half decider, giving DCU the 1-0 win over the star-studded Red Bulls. It was a heck of a well-worked effort. De Rosario chose to dummy the ball rather than take a pass near the top of the area. It rolled to teammate Josh Wolff, who spotted that De Rosario — after the dummy — hadn’t broken off his run. A nicely timed pass to an in-stride De Rosario exposed the Red Bulls’ backline. And, De Rosario smashed a low shot off the post and in, beating fellow Canadian Greg Sutton in the New York goal. While this match wasn’t a pivotal one for either D.C. United or the Red Bulls in the grand scheme of things, it was a massive chance for De Rosario to restore some of his swagger. And, as we have seen many times in the past, when De Rosario feels the MLS stage a little larger than usual — as was the case in tonight’s game, All-Star games, MLS Cups, playoffs — he responds with the kind of effort that’s made him one of the best clutch players in league history. There are those who will talk about the fact that he’s played for three teams this season; that his ego has become too large. But, at least for a night, De Rosario had the chance to prove a point — and he did so, with an exclamation mark.