Player Ratings: Houston Dynamo vs Sporting Kansas City

5 quick observations about this one:

1) Both Bruin and Hall were injured in this game

2) Set piece king returns: Brad Davis nets 2 assists over dead balls

3) Taylor's goal line save and Horst's header stood out as key highlights for efforts on both ends of the field

4) The defense held up and performed pretty well in a tough place to play

5) What an atmosphere for arguably the best game of the year. The weather, the physicality, and the scoring all made for a picturesque Friday evening

Houston Dynamo Player Ratings:

Tally Hall (6) - While there were a few nervy moments for Hall and the Dynamo defense (see Taylor's goal line save), he kept it together and the Dynamo kept the ball on the other part of the field fairly often. The biggest talking point around Hall was his injury. Nobody likes to be substituted and coaches don't like using them on their keepers unless they have to. Hall had more than one opportunity to leave the field, but decided to try and play through it - something that probably made the injury much worse than it was.

Kofi Sarkodie (5.5) - Sarkodie will unfortunately miss out on the game against the Montreal Impact due to yellow card accumulation as he saw yellow for reacting to Benny Feilhaber's shove by doing the same thing. In this game though he patrolled the right side pretty well and didn't give up the ball too often. He made some good clearances, but was lacking on the offensive side of the ball.

David Horst (7) - David Horst scored his first goal in orange and what a goal it was. The service was perfect, but Horst was left unmarked and put an amazing amount of power behind his header which put the Dynamo back on top after being Dom Dwyer equalized things. His reaction to scoring was also probably the best I've seen all year.

Jermaine Taylor (6.5) - This was one of Taylor's best games of the year in my opinion. Taylor was a beast on defense as he cleared several balls, intercepted passes, challenged players, and he prevented a goal by clearing it off the line. He had a good opportunity to score right after the weather delay too, but his header was just off the mark.

Corey Ashe (4) - Ashe once again filled in for DaMarcus Beasley and handled himself fairly well on the defensive end of the ball as he was able to rid the Dynamo defense of danger with some of his tackles, but he was just not up to snuff on the other end of the ball. Ashe turned the ball over way too many times including one back pass to Jermaine Taylor that could have led to a very good chance for Sporting Kansas City.

Luis Garrido (6.5) - Garrido proved to be very difficult to handle and pass through in the midfield. Garrido intercepted passes seven times in the game and dropped back to defend very ably.

Ricardo Clark (7.5) - Besides giving the Dynamo the insurance goal for the win, Clark only gave up the ball once in the midfield. He made several crucial clearances for the Dynamo and recovered the ball well out of the back midfield.

Oscar Boniek Garcia (6) - Boniek had a quieter night than some of the other players around him. While some of his usual tricks over the ball stood out, his passing was noticeably poorer than his typical standard and he really had a tough time becoming involved in the offense.

Brad Davis, MotM, (8) - Davis proved that he and his magical left foot still have what it takes to deliver on set pieces as he notched two key assists. Davis rarely gave the ball away and made several good defensive stands as well, earning the ball back for the team. Overall, it was a good night for the Dynamo captain.

Giles Barnes (5.5) - Barnes made some dangerous runs and created a few great opportunities for others, but rarely found room for his own chances (Barnes took 0 shots in the game). Barnes did bring plenty of energy and stood up for his team in the first half "brawl" that broke out before half-time.

Will Bruin (6.5) - The Dancing Bear scored his 10^th goal of the season in the 35^th minute on a one touch shot following a poor clearance by Aurelien Collin. It was a short celebration as Bruin injured himself on the kick that opened up the scoring at Sporting Park. Though Bruin continued to play, he had to be subbed off just 5 minutes after he scored.

The Subs:

Jason Johnson (3.5) - JJ came on for Bruin in just the 40^th minute and to me he never really showed up. Johnson failed to take any shots as a forward and struggled to connect passes all over the field.

Tyler Deric (7) - Deric came in for the injured Tally Hall cold, or without warming up. That didn't affect Deric at all. Deric was confident in his abilities from the start and aggressively took crosses out of the air.

Andrew Driver (N/A) - Came on in the last minute of regulation play and rarely touched the ball.

Coach Dominic Kinnear (7) - This was a great win by the Dynamo. They came out early and dominated the match, and even though momentum favored SKC after the weather delay, the team never backed down and was able to score before the half. In the second half the team was able to continue to mount pressure and score on set pieces. My only qualm with Kinnear is how he handled Tally Hall's injury. Maybe he can't be blamed and it's all on Tally, but allowing him to continue to play may prove to be a long term problem.