Brazilian leads United with four goals in 2012
When the possibility arose last winter that Maicon Santos might join D.C. United, the Brazilian forward consulted with Dwayne De Rosario, who’d been his teammate at Toronto FC.
“I was excited,” Santos said. “We talk a little bit before I got here about how things were going, what I can do for the team.”
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The conversation didn’t include plans that Santos would assume De Rosario’s scoring load from last season. With United’s lone goal in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Montreal, Santos has a team-high four goals. De Rosario has three assists but no goals, and while prized offseason signing Hamdi Salihi has yet to score, Santos has made himself at home after playing for three different teams in three MLS seasons.
The length of Santos’ MLS tenure helped attract United general manager Dave Kasper.
“It was really his third year in our league,” Kasper said. “There’s a benefit in that. A big, strong striker, scoring goals, has figured out the league, knows what it’s like to go play an away match in Columbus, for example.”
Santos (6-foot-1, 186 pounds) had one goal in 2009 for Chivas USA and five in 2010 for Chivas and Toronto. He scored six goals in 19 matches for the Canadian side last season before being shipped to Dallas, where he added two more.
“He’s never been on the greatest teams,” United coach Ben Olsen said. “I thought, in particular, when he played us, he was a real handful. Physically, he holds the ball up, he hits the hell out of the ball, and he was an up-and-down player.”
It’s been all ascent in D.C., where Santos unleashed a thundering 30-yard strike for the first of two goals in United’s 4-1 win over Dallas on March 30. He redirected De Rosario’s bicycle kick for D.C.’s first goal in last weekend’s 2-1 win at New England, and he again connected from distance against the Impact on his 28th birthday Wednesday.
“Twenty-eight is a great age, players are in the prime of their career,” Kasper said. “You hope he’s going to come in on an upward trajectory. He’s having a little bit of an explosion right now.”
