Houston Dynamo 0, Toronto FC 2: Rate the Players and Quick Thoughts

At the beginning of the year I introduced a new way for the Dynamo Theory community to be a part of Player Ratings. After matches everyone will get a chance to submit how each player did on a scale of 1 to 10 which will be averaged out in a later article. I think it’s interesting to see how we collectively felt about a player and use that as a discussion piece, but of course how we feel individually matters as well so please comment about player performances as you wish in the comments.

Quick Thoughts about the Game:

1) This team looks like a different team on the road than they do at BBVA and that’s becoming a little worrying. While the team looks largely dominant at home, we’re seeing this team sit back and play an unfamiliar style of soccer than we’re used to seeing in Houston. The team doesn’t have to be great on the road, few teams in this league are, but they put a lot more pressure on themselves to win at home if they can’t walk away with some points here and there on the road. It’s early in the year and we haven’t played many games on the road so it isn’t time to hit the panic button, but there are some signs to be concerned.

2) Wilmer Cabrera did not plan for this match well. The 4-4-2 that had worked so well against the San Jose Earthquakes looked like a crutch. The team was far too defensive minded which let Toronto create chance after chance. Instead of trying to limit the supply to Sebastian Giovinco and Jozy Altidore through high pressing, the team sat back essentially with a 5 man defensive line the way that Juan David Cabezas played and invited them to have the ball. It didn’t work, and we saw how well the number of chances increased when we were more aggressive higher up the field. We didn’t look like ourselves until we had 3-4 forwards in the game and that was the style needed to get a result at BMO Field.

3) Poor defending. I think it’s a little unfair to say the defense did poorly throughout the entire game because when a team possesses the ball in your attacking third for extended stretches of time and you only let in 2 goals, I think that’s more or less the expected result. But the goals that were conceded were glaring errors by defenders not marking their person.

Rate the Players: