Player Ratings: Houston Dynamo vs. Columbus Crew SC

Last week was a mixed bag for the Houston Dynamo who had a great win over LAFC in the US Open Cup which went to penalties, but that result was followed up with a disappointing 0-1 loss to Columbus Crew SC at Mapfre Stadium. In the game against Columbus we saw familiar safe tendencies which we’ve come to expect from the Dynamo on the road. They executed their game plan well overall, but the game plan itself didn’t lend itself to getting a lot of chances. Officiating was again suspect with Gyassi Zardes not receiving a second yellow card after a dive in the box and the game’s lone goal featured a player in an offside position attempting to make a play on the ball.

The ratings from this game were about where I’d place them with a few exceptions. Generally, everyone played pretty well without many mistakes made. I’d possibly move Romell Quioto into the Top Performers area since he was generating a lot of quality looks on goal even if they weren’t going in.

The Top Performers:

Joe Willis, Man of the Match, (7.9) – There couldn’t be another player for the Dynamo that deserves the Man of the Match honors. Joe Willis collected four saves including this huge one:

Willis was solid in goal and kept Crew SC off the board for most of the night. It’s tough to blame Willis for the one goal he did allow when it’s possible it was an offside goal.

Tomás Martínez (6.5) – Tomás Martínez continues to evolve into the focal point of the team. Midfielders look to get him the ball early when the team gains possession and he gets his head up and sees who he can connect with. In this one he had a few good link ups in the attacking third, notably with Ronaldo Peña and Mauro Manotas, but unfortunately the Dynamo were unable to unlock the Crew SC defense and goalkeeper Zack Steffen.

Mauro Manotas (6.4) – I think Romell Quioto deserves to be a Top Performer and Manotas was largely quiet in this game because the team was sitting too deep for a lot of the second half. When Manotas was involved he was making great plays like this one:

Assistant Head Coach Michael Dellorusso (5.4) – Filling in for Wilmer Cabrera who was suspended in the wild Sporting Kansas City game, Michael Dellorusso kept things relatively similar to how they normally fare on the road. It felt a bit safe for my taste, but players were executing the game well with few mistakes. As the game progressed, I think the direction was more focused on trying to get a road point than secure three and Crew SC took advantage of that and won out.

The Rest of the Starters:

DEF: Adam Lundqvist (6.3)

DEF: Leonardo (4.6)

DEF: Jared Watts (5.4)

DEF: Adolfo Machado (4.9)

MID: Eric Alexander (5)

MID: Oscar Boniek García (6.3)

FW: Romell Quioto (6.1)

FW: Andrew Wenger (6.4)

The Subs:

FW: Memo Rodríguez (5.3)

FW: Ronaldo Peña (5.1)

MID: Kevin Garcia (3.3)

Bonus Content:

Yesterday I went on the podcast/internet show Generation Orange which features former Dynamo Theory writer/editor Sean Ringrose along with the very knowledgeable Edson Ochoa. I give my thoughts on the loss to Crew SC during the first 25 minutes or so. They also had Dynamo/Dash Account Executive Jay Adelberg and Pro Soccer USA’s Jesus Acevedo Jr. on as well so please give them a listen or watch here.