To say that we did not like Dema Kovalenko during his stints in Chicago and DC is an understatement. No, the animosity didn't reach the levels reserved for the Diallos, Sernas, and Morenos of this world, but it would be hard to point out a single Metro fan who anything but loathed Kovalenko. He broke legs. And his teams won at the expense of Metro.

So when Metro used half of the Jean-Philippe Peguero allocation and acquired Dema from DC last year, it would have been easy to imagine the same reaction that occurred when Diallo, Serna, and Moreno came to the Metros. But that didn't happen; in part because Dema immediately stepped on the field and helped the team improve; in part because he seems to care about winning a great deal more than Diallo, Serna, and Moreno combined.

And it was Kovalenko's win-or-else attitude that made us welcome his turn in Metro colors; so often are our big-name acquisitions lackadaisical or selfish. Not so with Dema. Yes, he plays hard, yes, he is sometimes reckless, but you won't find another player in this league who leaves more of himself on the field. Broken nose? No problem. When he found out that getting it fixed would take him out for a long time, Kovalenko elected to play out the year without repairing it. Wear a plastic mask like the doctor advised? Not for Dema.

So last year, he came in and contributed right away, be it at left, right, or defensive midfield. This season, he made the d-mid spot his own, but when he was needed, switched to right back, a position he never played before, and played admirably. The numbers don't lie; with Dema starting, Metro is 6-3-1 this year, with 18 goals scored and nine allowed.

But recently, Dema has been injured, and injured enough to keep him from playing. Not coincidentally, without Kovalenko, Metro is 1-3-1, four goals scored and nine against, and struggling in ever facet of the field. Seth Stammler, who's taken over for Dema in defensive midfield, seems to pass to the other team much more often than not, and Claudio Reyna seems lost next to him. More and more balls are draining through the midfield and onto the backline, and the oft-injured defense is having a tough time with the increased number of opportunities the leaky midfield is presenting to the opposing forwards.

He is still listed as questionable on the injury report, but we need Dema now more than ever. The bleeding must stop, the slump must end, the leakage in midfield needs its plug. If someone told us a couple of years ago that we would utter the following sentences, we would laugh in their face, but here it goes. Come back, Dema. Metro needs you.