KANSAS CITY, Mo. – If Dom Dwyer feels snubbed by his omission from the MLS All-Star Game roster, he's keeping it hidden behind his trademark grin.
“Honestly, I expected to miss out,” Sporting Kansas City's star forward told MLSsoccer.com on Tuesday. “I had a feeling. I just didn't think I'd get picked, honestly. It was – I just had a feeling. I called it a couple of weeks ago: 'You know, I think I'm going to be the guy who misses out.' But it's not anything I can control.”
Dwyer already has a career-high 14 MLS goals this season – just four short of Preki's team record, which has stood since 1996. He is tied for second with Chivas USA's Erick “Cubo” Torres on the league list, three behind leader Bradley Wright-Phillips of the New York Red Bulls.
Torres is on the roster, but Dwyer is not – the only one of five double-digit scorers to be left off after fan voting, selection by All-Star coach Caleb Porter and Commissioner Don Garber's special picks.
“It's hard to do that,” Sporting manager Peter Vermes told reporters on Tuesday. “It's hard to leave guys off that have been very successful, such as him – over the course of this year, especially, and toward the end of last year and what he did in USL. But it is what it is, and the good thing is, it'll keep him hungry for the rest of the season, that's for sure.
“He's always hungry. But this will give him a little more bite, which is great.”
And while acknowledging that he would have liked to play in the Aug. 6 match against Bayern Munich in Portland, Dwyer said he would stay in Kansas City and put the time toward training instead.
“Maybe it's exactly what I need,” he said. “We'll see.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
