Houston Dynamo at Chicago Fire player ratings

(image via Houston Dynamo FC)

The Houston Dynamo fell short, 2-1, in Chicago this past weekend. Let’s take a look at how everyone performed.

Starters

Steve Clark-6

This was not Steve Clark’s finest game, but he certainly was not bad. He made four saves in the match and one of the goals he conceded was an unsavable penalty. He made a solid effort to come out and stop Brian Gutierrez for the second goal, but the Fire youngster was just too accurate with the lofted finish.

Griffin Dorsey-3

Dorsey struggled on both sides of the ball at times in this match. He got forward very well but failed to put in the service needed at times. Defensively, he got caught out for the second goal of the game. Hoping the Dorsey towards the end of last season shows out again soon.

Ethan Bartlow-7

A solid return to the lineup for Ethan, who was replacing the injured Micael. Bartlow defended very well all night and made an impact playing out of the back as well.

Erik Sviatchenko-7

Similar things can be said about Svitacthenko’s performance. He was very solid at the back per usual. His passing was tremendous and got the team out of some sticky situations. It’s hard to blame him or Bartlow for either goal.

Franco Escobar-4

Well, the player you can blame is Franco Escobar. Escobar and Maren Haile-Selassie went at it all night and Escobar came out on top more often than not. His team high of five tackles were massively important as well. Unfortunately, Escobar lacks composure at times and this led to the penalty that gave Chicago the lead. He also failed to score on multiple chances from corners.

Artur-6

This was definitely not Artur’s best performance this season. He saw lots of the ball and was mostly accurate with his passing. He failed to make a huge impact on the game on either ends of the ball, unfortunately.

Jan Gregus-5

Gregus was a pedestrian for a lot of this game. He had lots of accurate short passes, but nothing to penetrate Chicago’s defense. Ben Olsen made a great call with the early substitution of Gregus.

Amine Bassi-8

Bassi had his best performance of the season with an incredible nine shot creating actions. His passing was superb and he was the best player on the field for the Dynamo by far. His pressing created the goal Aliyu scored as well. We need to see more of this from Bassi who has had a slower start to the season than we might have hoped for.

Coco Carrasquilla-5

Coco had a fairly quiet game for his standards. There was not a whole lot of penetration when he was out wide or in the middle. He did, however, have an incredible back heel pass that will make the highlight reels.

Aliyu Ibrahim-7

Another game and another goal for Aliyu, who continues his hot start to the season. He was not involved on the ball as much as you would like for a lot of the game, but when it mattered most he finished his chance beautifully.

Sebastian Kowalczyk-3

Sebastian Kowalczyk seems to be disappearing every weekend now with yet another weak performance. Kowalczyk made only 21 touches in 83 minutes, which is incredibly low for a player who likes to create on the ball. He had one really nice passage of play with Coco, but that was it.

Substitutes

Brad Smith-6

Brad came on and brought some nice energy to the team. He did not make a crazy impact but did enough to stay as the first option off the bench while reinforcements hopefully arrive soon.

Tate Schmitt, Latif Blessing, and Gabe Segal-N/A

None of these three players came on and played enough minutes to warrant a rating. Schmitt and Blessing looked fine while Gabe Segal looked like his usual self.

Head Coach

Ben Olsen-7

As Ben said during the week, Chicago is never an easy place to play, and he was not lying. This was a very physical game and Chicago continued to play into that. Not having Sebas once again certainly hurt his chances of getting three points in this match. He did what he could with the players available and got a decent performance. Not a great result, but close games on the road with no Designated Players are always a positive for a team who has struggled to look competent on the road in recent years.