{"id":17546,"date":"2018-07-13T19:55:25","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T23:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonsoccer.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=17546"},"modified":"2018-07-18T19:51:44","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T23:51:44","slug":"wayne-rooney-mls-bow-strikers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2018\/07\/13\/wayne-rooney-mls-bow-strikers\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne Rooney Makes MLS Bow, Amid Golden Era of Strikers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Editorial (July 13, 2018)<\/strong> &#8211; It wasn\u2019t exactly a Lebron James-type decision, but there was plenty of excitement when Wayne Rooney decided to join D.C. United. He will make his debut for Ben Olsen\u2019s team on July 14, with plenty of \u2018green\u2019 fans expected to make the trip to Audi Field to see what all the fuss is about.<\/p>\n<h1>Wayne Rooney Makes MLS Bow, Amid Golden Era of Strikers<\/h1>\n<p>The truth is, however, there is very little fuss around the 32-year-old these days, certainly in his native England. He is respected, of course, but most fans think of Rooney and consider what might have been. He was a great player for club and country, but he could have been one of the true great players of the modern era. It seems Rooney fast-tracked from vast potential to nearly-finished in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rooney surrounded by better players in recent years<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>People will point to his eleven goals for Everton, a struggling side, as proof that Rooney is still capable of hitting the back of the net. That, of course, was never in doubt. But Rooney still just hit the same number of goals as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, a player who only made 13 appearances for Arsenal. Rooney made 40 appearances in an Everton shirt last season. And, that\u2019s the point about Rooney, the modern Rooney. He is still good. Capable of moments of genius at times, too. He will undoubtedly have a few Zlatan-esque moments in big games in MLS.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bq_2sFtKvK8\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>However, it is the competition around him \u2013 in the elite levels of world football \u2013 where Rooney can no longer hold his head with the rest. Indeed, it\u2019s hard to frame thing in the context of contemporary sport, but it feels like we are living in a golden era of strikers. A time when goal scoring is in fashion again.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Golden Boot shows Premier League\u2019s strength<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking, for example, at the odds for the contenders for the Golden Boot in the Premier League \u2013 an accolade that Rooney never won, despite his 2018 EPL goals \u2013 shows what he was up against: Harry Kane (2\/1, odds from BetStars), Mo Salah (9\/2), Sergio Aguero (13\/2), Romelu Lukaku (8\/1) are just some of the main protagonists in the running. You can also see Gabriel Jesus (10\/1), Roberto Firmino (25\/1), Alexis Sanchez (28\/1) in with a shout. A glut of top strikers graces the Premier League and you can use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freebets.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the best UK Free Bets<\/a> to back them.<\/p>\n<p>Around Europe, the great generation of strikers is even more pronounced. In Italy, Mauro Icardi, Gonzalo Higuain, Ciro Immobile and Paulo Dybala have been plying their trade, with Cristiano Ronaldo possibly joining them. In Spain, Antoine Griezmann, Diego Costa, and Luis Suarez are among the goals. Lionel Messi, while one is not sure whether to call him a striker, is among the greatest forwards in history.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Young stars set to shine in coming years<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Out in Germany, we have Robert Lewandowski, in Paris, Neymar and Cavani. That\u2019s all without even mentioning the next great generation: Kyliann Mbapp\u00e9, Marcus Rashford, Gabriel Jesus. Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 and Paulinho (not that one). The production line of great strikers looks set to continue.<\/p>\n<p>How would Rooney have operated among these players at his peak? It\u2019s hard to say. During a lot of his career, fans were waiting for \u2018it\u2019 to happen. That \u2018it\u2019 was for Rooney to take the next step towards greatness. There were moments, for sure: The overhead kick to seal the Derby against Manchester City, half-way line goals, the record-haul of England strikes. But perhaps not enough. MLS should enjoy him though, he can still pull it out of the bag now and then.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"wiD61DWMSChrcUPYPk1zkA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/995249934\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'wiD61DWMSChrcUPYPk1zkA',sig:'aIC_Qgm2jXfFPTN0AACgfGMq8nfK-Entym_ITBPd54I=',w:'594px',h:'424px',items:'995249934',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editorial (July 13, 2018) &#8211; It wasn\u2019t exactly a Lebron James-type decision, but there was plenty of excitement when Wayne Rooney decided to join D.C. United. He will make his debut for Ben Olsen\u2019s team on July 14, with plenty of \u2018green\u2019 fans expected to make the trip to Audi Field to see what all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1788,"featured_media":17547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,27,119],"tags":[170,57,2451],"class_list":["post-17546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dcu","category-fifa-tournament","category-mls","tag-d-c-united","tag-mls","tag-waynes-rooney"],"modified_by":"Matt Pollard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1788"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}