USL Feature
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Dwayne De Rosario became part of an exclusive club last Wednesday, with the D.C. United standout becoming just the sixth player in Major League Soccer’s history to score 100 regular-season goals. The former Richmond Kickers standout led the USL Alumni who starred in MLS this past week.
De Rosario, who scored 16 goals and added six assists for the Kickers in his breakout professional season, joined other USL alumni on in the 100 goals club. Current Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis, who finished his career with 108 goals, played for the Raleigh Express, while Chicago Fire legend Ante Razov spent time on loan with the Sacramento Scorpions from the Los Angeles Galaxy early in his career before going on to finish with 114 goals in Major League Soccer.
De Rosario’s 100th goal came against United’s rivals the New York Red Bulls, and was poised to be the game-winner until Wilman Conde’s 88th-minute strike earned his side a point in the Eastern Conference playoff race. His achievement, however, was recognized with a place on the MLS Team of the Week, released on Tuesday.
Joining De Rosario on the Team of the Week was another former Kicker, with the Philadelphia Union’s Brian Carroll putting in a strong pair of performances as a holding midfielder. Carroll, who joined the Kickers on loan for eight games in 2003, was joined in the midfield by Sal Zizzo, a former member of the PDL’s Orange County Blue Star, who helped the Portland Timbers win consecutive games for the first time in 2012.
Zizzo’s contributions included the assist on the game-winning goal by Bright Dike against Colorado on Saturday night, with the young striker scoring his second goal in the past three games. After a strong loan spell earlier this season with the Los Angeles Blues that saw the former Notre Dame standout score six goals in 10 appearances, earning All-USL PRO Second Team honors on Tuesday, Dike is making the most of his opportunity to impress after earning a place in the starting lineup.
Rounding out the USL contingent on the Team of the Week is San Jose’s Ramiro Corrales, who continued his remarkable season with a pair of goals in the league-leading Earthquakes’ 4-0 victory against Chivas USA on Sunday night. Corrales, who played for the California Jaguars in 1995 before joining the Columbus Crew in the league’s inaugural season, notched both goals from free kicks, continuing to show his quality at 35 years old.
The most heart-warming story of the weekend came from Seattle, though, as Steve Zakuani made his return to the Sounders starting lineup on Sunday night against FC Dallas. It had taken the former Cleveland Internationals standout, who had nine goals and four assists in 11 appearances in 2008, more than a year to completely recover from a devastating injury suffered early last season, but 500 days after his last start, Zakuani returned, and recorded the assist on Mauro Rosales’ goal, as the Sounders took a 1-1 draw.