Player Ratings: Houston Dynamo vs. the Colorado Rapids

The Houston Dynamo seemingly took a step back in their search for that elusive win on the road this season. This time their misstep came against the Colorado Rapids, who came into the game as the bottom team in the league in terms of points. The Dynamo were beaten 3-1 by the Rapids although the score line doesn’t capture everything that happened in the game. Houston began the game in typical “road-form” fashion and surrendered much of the midfield by keeping players back while taking few risks to jump start the offense. However, after the 40^th minute or so the Dynamo looked like the better side and were able to equalize the game before halftime. The second half saw more chances for the Dynamo, but they were unable to completely finish their chances partially due to the heroics of Rapid’s goalkeeper Tim Howard. The difference between the two sides came down to defensive errors which allowed Colorado to collect all three points in the match.

Personnel wise I think the ratings are pretty fair, though some players deserve higher such as Ricardo Clark, Andrew Wenger, DaMarcus Beasley, and Juan David Cabezas at least in my view. Alex seems to be rated at little too high for my taste as I did not think he was a top performer in this game, but rated high at 4.9 shows how the game went for the entire team.

The Top Performers:

Erick “Cubo” Torres, Man of the Match, (5.5) –The lone goal scorer for the Dynamo, Cubo showed a lot of skill on his goal. His movement kept defender Matt da Fonte guessing, and then he used his strength to get in front of da Fonte when he turned his head to poke a ball through the legs of Tim Howard. Cubo also showed improved passing as he delivered 3 key passes while passing with nearly 80% accuracy which is pretty good for a center forward.

SUB: Alex Lima (4.9) – As I stated above, I don’t think Alex was a top performer in this game. I just don’t think he impacted the game the way that he has in other games this season. He was an excellent passer, but never made it too high up the field and didn’t contribute much on the defensive end either. Overall, I’d call it an average outing.

Mauro Manotas (4.8) – Manotas was the most involved forward of our top three players in terms of touches and actually put those touches to good use. He was a fairly accurate passer at 83.3% and two of his three shots were on target. Manotas also did work on the defensive end of the ball making two tackles for the forward – one in our half of the field and one in their half.

Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera (4.4) – This rating feels pretty close to what I’d rate Cabrera at. I thought for the first 40 minutes he deserved lower because the game plan was obviously not working, but after his team picked it up (even after we conceded two goals) the Dynamo looked like they could get one back. It’s tough to place a lot of blame on Cabrera for defensive miscues so I think he had an overall average day. The subs were good including shifting to what appeared to be a 4-2-4 formation to get more offense going, but in the end we never closed the gap on Colorado and the mistakes our defenders made.

The Rest of the Starters:

GK: Joe Willis (4.7)

DEF: DaMarucs Beasley (3.8)

DEF: Leonardo (3.5)

DEF: Adolfo Machado (3.6)

DEF: A. J. DeLaGarza (3.5)

MID: Oscar Boniek Garcia (4.1)

MID: Juan David Cabezas (4.1)

MID: Ricardo Clark (4.2)

FW: Andrew Wenger (4.3)

The Subs:

DEF: Vicente Sanchez (4.5)

MID: Joseph Holland (4.4)