Houston Dynamo at Sporting Kansas City player ratings

(image via Houston Dynamo FC)

The Houston Dynamo snapped their four-game winless streak with a road win over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday. Let’s take a look at how everyone performed.

Steve Clark-8

Clark had another massive game in net on the road, making five saves, including a massive save right at the end to secure all three points. If you are going to earn points on the road, it will involve your goalkeeper making plays like that. His distribution played a huge role in setting up the game winning goal. He would have been man of the match if it weren’t for the fairly soft goal he conceded to Daniel Salloi.

Griffin Dorsey-8

Griffin was the goal scorer last game, now this time he became the provider, setting up the game-winning goal with an incredible run through the middle of the field. The pass to Aliyu was inch perfect as well. He created loads of attacking opportunities throughout the night as he was best player running with the ball on the field. His poor defensive display against Salloi at times keeps him from earning man of the match honors.

Erik Sviatchenko-8

Erik was back to his best on Saturday with a huge defensive performance. He made an incredible six interceptions and kept Alan Pulido quiet all night.

Micael-8

Like Sviatchenko, Micael also had a great defensive performance. He made three huge blocks and he consistently put his body on the line for his team. His play out of the back was also phenomenal and helped set up the second goal.

Daniel Steres-6

Daniel ended up only playing the first half where he put in a nothing special, solid display. Not a whole lot to mention with Steres as he did his job fairly well, with nothing particularly standing out.

Artur-7

Artur had one of his typical Artur performances where he quietly controlled the midfield all night long, barely putting a foot wrong. With Herrera back in the lineup, Artur did not see a ton of action going forward.

Hector Herrera-8

Hector was finally back in the starting lineup, and he did not disappoint. Like the last few games, he had some sloppy giveaways, but this time he made up for it with a spectacular goal to open the scoring. The difference in buildup is night and day with this man in the team.

Amine Bassi-9 (MOTM)

Amine Bassi continues to look like one of the best creative midfielders in MLS this season with another assist. His off-ball move movement is near perfect at times and gets him in so many huge pockets of space to pick teams apart. He had five shot creating actions to go along with nine progressive passes. His work in the pressing department was also huge in retaining possession for the Dynamo.

Coco Carrasquilla-7

You would like to see Coco step it up some more, but he just keeps putting in these solid performances where there isn’t too much to criticize him for. He held possession really well and was great in transition. Defensively, he put in a lot of hard work. This was emphasized even more late in the game when he switched to a deeper position.

Aliyu Ibrahim-8

Aliyu continues to score important goals for the Dynamo as the only major goal scoring threat on the team at the moment. He was excellent in the pressing department, and he held the ball up very nicely on multiple occasions. His run and finish on the game winning goal was some of his best work this season.

Sebastian Kowalczyk-4

Another game where Sebastian Kowalczyk puts in loads of work and covers a lot of ground but fails to make any difference offensively. He had very little involvement in the play for many phases of this game. 22 touches is just not enough for your starting striker.

Substitutes

Tate Schmitt-7

Tate came on at half time for Steres and did a really good job defending Johnny Russell, who has torched the Dynamo in the past. This was a really positive performance for a player who has had a hard time keeping himself in the starting XI on a weekly basis.

Latif Blessing-1

What a weird 20-minute cameo for Latif Blessing where he only made two touches and failed to complete a pass or register a defensive action the entire time he was on the field. He might as well not even have played.

Brad Smith and Ethan Bartlow-N/A

Both players came on late in the game to see out the result. Both played their role but weren’t on long enough to get a rating.

Head Coach

Ben Olsen-8

Ben Olsen continues to get the Dynamo to work hard and earn points in tough road games this season. This was the best lineup he had available to him, and he got the result in what was a somewhat comfortable game. The score line definitely doesn’t make it seem that way, but Kansas City never posed too much of a threat throughout the game.