Player Ratings: Houston Dynamo vs D.C. United

5 quick observations about this one:

1)    Ouch, that's gotta hurt Sherrod. Hoping for the best mate.

2)    Outplayed in just about every way.

3)    Out of sync with each other led to ball watching, poor passing, and defensive meltdowns.

4)    Our Horst has a weakness and it's 1v1 defending

5)    On to the West Coast. Time to forget about this one.

Houston Dynamo Player Ratings:

Tally Hall (4) - Tally never commanded those in front of him as the defense never really looked organized. On the second goal he was pretty much frozen after Horst was beaten which is a big no-no.

Kofi Sarkodie (5) - Really struggled to move the ball up the field and was caught out of position a few times. He really should have been defending deeper when DC netted the 2^nd goal.

Jermaine Taylor (3.5) - Taylor looked to have regressed from his previous game's form (as did everyone). Taylor looked out of sync (as did everyone) and had trouble marking DC and their venomous through ball.

David Horst (3) - Easily the toughest game for David Horst and we learned that even superheroes have weaknesses and for Horst it could be defending against the 1v1 as he was twice beaten in that scenario which led to the games only two goals.

Corey Ashe (5) - Had trouble marking at times and struggled against the through ball, but linked better with the offense than other defenders.

Warren Creavalle (4.5) - Was often beat when DC was transitioning the ball to their forwards and couldn't police the midfield quite as well as Carrasco did. When are we getting Ricardo Clark back? should be a question everyone is asking themselves.

Andrew Driver (5.5) - Actually pushed the ball up well, but couldn't find his targets. His most dangerous moment came off a corner kick which went over the head of Hamid, but a bit of contact on Hamid by Horst resulted in a dead ball for DC.

Giles Barnes (6) - Barnes was one of the only players that looked to be in the game as he created one of the most dangerous opportunities towards the end of the first half. After that he was still trying to find a way for the offense to become effective, but it was all for naught.

Omar Cummings (6) - Cummings too was the other main man that pushed the wheels for the Dynamo. Cummings created opportunities for himself and others, but nothing was coming for the men in orange in this one.

Mark Sherrod (N/A) - We're all hoping the rookie is okay and that his injury is nowhere near as severe as it looked on TV. OUCH

Will Bruin (5.5) - Bruin's best moment was when he beat Hamid but was still marked, but he neither pulled the trigger on the shot nor picked out Omar Cummings who was in a better position than Andrew Driver - the player to which Bruin passed the ball to.

The Subs:

Brian Ownby (5.5) - Came on for Mark Sherrod early in the match and helped draw a few fouls that led to yellows for DC. However, his retaliatory swing at a player was completely unwarranted and really puts our depth in a hole.

Servando Carrasco (6) - Carrasco came on and sharpened up things a bit in the midfield and one of his first touches of the ball was a shot that was saved by the finger tips of Hamid.

Alex Lopez (N/A) ­­- An Alex Lopez sighting! Of course, he didn't play long enough nor have the impact on the game to merit a fair rating.

Coach Dominic Kinnear (5.5) - This is a tough one for Kinnear. Nobody expected Sherrod to go out the way he did which is tough for any team, but the Dynamo just looked out of sync and lacked toughness, both physical and mental. The team was outplayed in nearly every way, and while some positives exist (a few close chances on goal mostly), there isn't really enough to create a silver lining. Kinnear will have to lean on his depth even more against San Jose with Ownby and Sherrod out.

Lastly, I didn't think this match really had a man of the match. Other than Cummings and Barnes, I didn't see standout performances from this team. If you think there was a man of the match, discuss in the comments below. It's time to move on from this one and not look at the injury, the red card, the goals, or anything of that sort because it'll only bring sadness and anger.