ORLANDO, Fla. -- Dwayne De Rosario is doing his best to show Canada his international career isn’t over just yet.
The MLS veteran and former league MVP found the net for Canada once again Monday in their 1-1 draw against Iceland at South Florida University, giving him two goals in two games following his strike in Friday’s game against the same team in a 2-1 loss. And while it was a mostly inexperienced side that started Canada’s 2015 slate off with mixed results, De Rosario demonstrated he could still give Les Rouges quite the spark.
“I consider De Rosario an excellent player,” Canada head coach Benito Floro said of the forward, who netted from the spot Monday to give his side a 1-0 first-half lead. “Excellent means he fights a lot. He has very good skill. He has very good tactical knowledge.”
In a change from Friday’s starting lineup, De Rosario got the start as the target forward, leaving him four caps shy of Paul Stalteri for the most in Canada’s national team history. Despite still being without a club team, De Rosario helped Canada start the match much stronger than their previous time out, constantly pestering the Iceland backline.
He played a more withdrawn role on Friday when he entered the match as a second-half substitute, but Floro was non-committal regarding how he would use the veteran going forward.
“He can play the wing, he can play as a forward, he can play as a second forward,” Floro said. “For me, he is one of the best players we have.”
Overall, both matches were a tale of two halves for Canada. They controlled much of the first half on Monday, but conceded the equalizer and nearly a winner to Iceland in the second 45, whereas De Rosario almost sparked a second-half comeback with a 70th-minute goal in Friday’s loss.
“If we consider the games as four halves, we could say that Iceland won two and Canada won two,” Floro said. “We are happy with our players. In both games, we proposed a combined attack.”
Canada were missing several regulars for the non-FIFA date friendlies, and many of those on the roster are in the middle of their offseasons. Further, six players on the squad are currently unattached.
“We need to consider the youth,” Floro said. “We need to consider that we are not in the best physical condition.”
Floro, however, seemed content enough with the result Monday night as his team heads into a huge year in 2015 with World Cup qualifying to begin in June, followed by the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament in July.
“Today, we played with good intensity and were pressing everywhere on the pitch,” Floro said. “But [Iceland] played as well as us. I consider the final result fair.”
