Player Ratings: Houston Dynamo vs. the Colorado Rapids

With a congested schedule facing the Houston Dynamo, Wilmer Cabrera shook up his first choice selections when the Dynamo traveled to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park to take on the Colorado Rapids. Many regular starting players were left on the bench which opened up the opportunity for role players to have an impact. Unfortunately, the tactics by both managers were to sit back defensively which resulted in a not-so-attractive match to watch as a spectator. The final whistle blew with both teams still locked at 0-0 so the Dynamo did get a draw with many regular starters getting rested or they played on limited minutes with the Quarterfinals of the US Open Cup today and the Texas Derby this weekend.

The Top Performers:

Joe Willis, Man of the Match, (7.8) – It wasn’t a particularly grueling evening for Joe Willis who only had three shots on target against him, but all three were saved. Willis was active at catching crosses and made a very alert play where he came out and made a good clearance.

Adam Lundqvist (7) – Lundqvist was one of the better defenders on the pitch in Colorado last weekend and that was demonstrated with a clearance inside the 6 yard box. A ball was played into the area and Lundqvist was quick to get to it first and try to clear it. His clearance went into a Rapids player and away from one of the more dangerous moments of the match.

Memo Rodríguez (6.9) – Memo was one of the Dynamo players that wasn’t content to sit back and defend – especially in the first half. He was often looking to push up and try and create something either for himself with a shot from range or for others. He also moved the ball very well from central midfield.

Head Coach Wilmer Cabrera (2.6) – Those that participated in the voting clearly weren’t too pleased with the defensive strategy that Wilmer Cabrera used. Starting a 5 man back line against one of the deepest sitting teams in MLS showed that Cabrera really didn’t have a lot of confidence in his role/bench players or he over thought his approach to the game. The first half had Romell Quioto sitting on an island by himself with no support. During the second half things got better after we saw Alberth Elis and Mauro Manotas pair together, but they still needed a little more support in the offense. He then took central attacking midfielder Tomás Martínez off for central defensive midfielder Darwin Cerén which let the Rapids have a few more chances down the final stretch. A road point is a decent result but it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t a sound strategy, and Colorado could have stolen this one which would have been a disaster.

The Rest of the Starters:

DEF: Leonardo (5.6)

DEF: Jared Watts (5.3)

DEF: Adolfo Machado (5.4)

DEF: Kevin Garcia (4.9)

MID: Tomás Martínez (6.2)

MID: Eric Alexander (4.9)

MID: Luis Gil (4.7)

FW: Romell Quioto (5.8)

The Subs:

FW: Alberth Elis (6.6)

FW: Mauro Manotas (6.8)

MID: Darwin Cerén (6)