Houston Dynamo 1, Colorado Rapids 3: 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. These ratings are interesting because we all view how players perform differently. Rating websites like WhoScored.com view things from an analytical perspective, but a statistic, even one as big as a goal, doesn’t quite tell the entire story as some goals are bigger and more important to a game than others. I think seeing how we as a community feel can create fun conversations. 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) Defensive mistakes were extremely costly for the Houston Dynamo in this game. For the first 40 minutes of the game, the team played often as they do on the road: midfielders don’t support the offense, longer passes aren’t made as often, and the team is a bit too timid overall which creates a huge gap between the midfielders and forwards. This allowed the Colorado Rapids to control most of the first half of the game, but the Dynamo did turn on a switch and started getting aggressive. They were unfortunate to give up so many goals due to mistakes because things looked decent on the other end of the field.

2) There is plenty to debate about Cubo Torres and whether or not he’s a true center forward – I don’t think he is because his hold up play and strength aren’t great, although he has shown improvements in those areas. However, he scored a center forward’s type of goal. His movements threw off defender Mike da Fonte and he used his strength to get in front and poke in a goal through Tim Howard’s legs.

3) Wilmer Cabrera tried plenty to get his team back in the game including trying a formation resembling a 4-2-4 without a holding midfielder and I am very okay with that. The team was down two goals and we needed offense. We weren’t able to get a goal back, but we showed some promising attacks.

4) The Dynamo road woes remain one of if not the biggest mysteries in MLS. Let’s hope they figure them out soon. With the loss the Dynamo moved from 2^nd place in the West to 5^th. They really could have used a win against a lowly opponent.

Rate the Players: