Player Ratings: Houston Dynamo vs Colorado Rapids

5 quick observations about this one:

1) When teams run through the central midfield AND defense, it's usually going to be very bad for the other team.

2) Taylor is my flop of the year

3) My MVP for the season has concussion symptoms and don't have a central midfield "general" like him as seen by the Creavalle, Carrasco, and Lopez performances.

4) Back-to-back 3-0 defeats should be a wakeup call

5) Ashe with a great save!

Houston Dynamo Player Ratings:

Tally Hall (3.5) - Six goals in two games...yikes. While many people are calling for Tyler Deric to replace Hall, I should note that these goals weren't Tally's fault and they weren't the easiest of shots to save. Goals aside this wasn't the strongest of outings for Hall and he and the defensive really need to shore things up.

Kofi Sarkodie (5) - Sarkodie was largely untested as Colorado's preferred method of defensive exploitation was through the middle and our left side. Sarkodie did link up with Omar Cummings a few times, but it was a relatively quite night for HRH.

Jermaine Taylor (2.5) - Was completely beaten and out of position for the goal that put the Dynamo down 2. Even if Brown was just barely offside, a player can't bank on the refs getting it right - not in this league anyways, and he must play through until the whistle or lack thereof. Taylor also allowed Kamani Hill to do a weird flick with the ball on a corner kick by leaving him open that led to the 3^rd goal of the game against the Dynamo.

David Horst (4) - Horst can take responsibility for losing Deshorn Brown on the first goal. Aside from that communication errors in the back were costly. If Horst wants to be the vocal leader in the back he needs to get his line on the same page.

Corey Ashe (4.5) - In the 18^th minute Corey Ashe kept the Dynamo from going down 2-0 by producing a spectacular fully extended sliding save on the goal line which you can vote to be save of the week. Aside from that he had a tough time handling Marvell Wynne, but he didn't have a lot of support there from Andrew Driver.

Andrew Driver (3.5) - To me, Driver was invisible this game. Maybe it's because the Dynamo couldn't connect their passes or maybe because they went up the right side trusting Cummings more, but when Driver did get the ball nothing really materialized and he seemed to give it away an awful lot.

Servando Carrasco (4.5) - A combination of inexperience, altitude, and pairing led to an off night for Carrasco. Colorado ran through the midfield quite easily and Carrasco's usual quick and accurate passing wasn't up to snuff.

Warren Creavalle (3) - Started the game out well enough making a few good runs and passes, but Creavalle struggled to pair with Carrasco and he soon began making sloppy passes and tackles which led Dominic Kinnear to go to the bench right before the first half ended. Ouch

Omar Cummings (6) - The former Colorado Rapid was easily one of the more dangerous players for the Dynamo (which wasn't hard to do honestly). Cummings sent in several dangerous balls and did his best to chase down some of the wild over the top balls that were sent to him essentially creating something out of nothing.

Giles Barnes (5) - Showed hustle by winning some balls, most notably when he beat his man and tried a shot from a tough angle, but Barnes struggled to find his exact role in this lineup.

Will Bruin (6) - Bruin was the closest man in orange to taking away the Rapid's clean sheet. Bruin worked hard and it looked like his touch has improved somewhat. Bruin's rocket off the crossbar was the best-almost-good moment in this game for the Dynamo.

The Subs:

Alexander Lopez (4) - Came on early for Creavalle and was an improvement as the Dynamo did show a bit more bite in their attack on occasion, but wasn't effective defensively and looked lost at times.

Jason Johnson (4) - Helped contribute to a few counter attacks, but struggled to find his place on the right side of midfield.

A.J. Cochran (-) ­­- Came on and shook things up by pushing Taylor to LB and Ashe to LM which seemed to work better than what we were doing, but still didn't play long enough to get a fair rating.

Coach Dominic Kinnear (5) - A lot will be and has been discussed about Dom's accountability as of late. I think Montgomery Scott from Star Trek would agree with me that Dom is "givin' it all she's got" given the situation. That situation would be three quarters of the starting midfield being gone for one reason or another would leave anyone in a very tough bind. I think he's frustrated too. I mean he has to be. Back to back 3-0 defeats will force Dom to make some tough calls. Just like Scott from Star Trek, Dom usually finds a way to stop things from exploding in such a way that allows him to complete the mission. The mission isn't to stop the Klingons, but to get to the playoffs, and that isn't out of our reach yet.

I didn't feel like there was a man of the match for this game, but if you do please post in the comments. If I had to choose, it would be between Cummings and Bruin, but maybe you saw something differently.