Dwayne De Rosario squeezes out Julian de Guzman for 2007 Canadian Player of the Year
It was a close one, but Dwayne De Rosario (Houston Dynamo MLS) has squeezed out Julian de Guzman (Deportivo de La Coruña La Liga) and been named by the CSA as the men’s 2007 Adidas Canadian Players of the Year for the third straight year.
I would have been happy with either of them winning. But DeRo, being the 2007 MLS MVP 2007 MLS Cup MVP (thanks Jon for the correction, and apologies to fans of Luciano Emilio, the correct MLS MVP for 2007) and winning the league with his club, plus tapping in 5 for Canada in 2007 probably puts him above de Guzman. But de Guzman has clearly had a breakout year in CONCACAF. It was during the Gold Cup that de Guzman began forging his reputation as the best midfielder in CONCACAF.
Christine Sinclair was named the women’s 2007 Adidas Canadian Players of the Year, also for the third straight year, while Asmir Begovic (currently in the Portsmouth Reserves) and Sophie Schmidt were named co-winners of the Canadian U-20 Players of the Year..
Recipients of the award are chosen by the media and senior level coaches in Canada.
Here is the list from the CSA of the recipients. Check out the heading they have given the Men’s list “Male players from the Men’s national team” and then check out who finished at #11 on the list. Wishful thinking, or maybe the CSA knows something the rest of us don’t. Er,riiiiight.
Final List
Male players from the Men’s national team
- Dwayne De Rosario (37.4)
- Julian de Guzman (32.7)
- Atiba Hutchinson (7.7)
- Pat Onstad (7.6)
- Paul Stalteri (5.3)
- Ali Gerba (3.7)
- Ante Jazic (1.6)
- Richard Hastings (1.5)
- Lars Hirschfeld (1.3)
- Rob Friend (0.5)
- Jonathan de Guzman (0.3)
- Olivier Occean (0.3)
- Mike Klukowski (0.3)
Female players from the Women’s national team
- Christine Sinclair (47.5)
- Erin McLeod (21.0)
- Rhian Wilkinson (6.9)
- Candace Chapman (6.3)
- Martina Franko (5.6)
- Sophie Schmidt (5.0)
- Diana Matheson (3.9)
- Kristina Kiss (1.8)
- Randee Hermus (1.5)
- Brittany Timko (0.4)
- Robyn Gayle (0.3)
Just a correction – De Rosario was MLS Cup MVP, MLS MVP. His regular season, by his high standards, was below average.
He’s still a worthy choice, and the one that I expected from this poll. Even though I think De Guzman is a better player and played better for Canada, we don’t here as much about him as about Dwayne.