Houston Dynamo midfielder Dwayne De Rosario was “sent to work under a tight deadline” against Panamanian club San Francisco FC in Tuesday’s Concacaf Champions League game, writes Bernardo Fallas. But it was time enough to score a spectacular winning goal and give a Major League Soccer team its first win in this year’s competition at the tenth attempt, by two goals to one.
The 25-yard strike two minutes from time “was vintage De Rosario. Flashy, stunning, powerful.” His coach, Dominic Kinnear, lauded the “fantastic goal” and said, “I think the game looked to be destined for a tie… but I give full credit to Dwayne for coming on with a good attitude. His energy and his unselfishness [helped] to bring guys in and let us take territory again where I think we were losing that territory.”
“Our team did a great job throughout the whole game,” said De Rosario, adding that his side, which is unbeaten in CCL group play with a 1-0-2 record, had peppered the opposition goal with enough shots to make its defense “a bit leggy” by the time he came on.
Fallas writes that at the age of 30, De Rosario cannot play every game given the increasingly heavy club schedules and playing for the Canadian national team too. He may even end up posting his lowest MLS goals and assists tally in four seasons, but his “clutch play is a prime example why soccer is not a game of stats. You can’t quantify clutch or spark, much less game-changing ability.”