Houston Dynamo player ratings at St. Louis CITY SC

(image via IMAGN)

The Houston Dynamo are back and last night they lost their opening game of the season to St Louis CITY SC in the Concacaf Champions Cup. Let’s take a look at how everyone performed.

Starters

Steve Clark-8

As per usual, when the Dynamo travel, they need Steve Clark to have some big saves to stay in games. Steve made four saves on the night including one spectacular save. Steve saved what could have been an awful night in St Louis.

Tate Schmitt-1

It was good to see Tate in the lineup after his long injury layoff, but it turned into a reminder of how much of a disaster it was last season when Tate and Dorsey started at fullback together. This night was no different, unfortunately. Tate looked completely lost on both sides of the ball and St Louis took advantage all night. St Louis immediately triggered the press every time Tate touched the ball and that put him in some tricky situations. The He will need to show tons of improvement for him to hold down a starting spot going forward.

Micael-6

None of the defenders played great, but he was the best of the bunch. He had a whopping seven clearances and was incredibly dominant in the air. Where he lacked was his ability to help out Tate while building out of the back.

Erik Sviatchenko-1

That was easily Erik’s worst performance in a Dynamo shirt and it’s not even close. For a player that is supposed to be the leader and rock at the back, he looked like he didn’t know what team he was playing for most of the night. His play out of the back was horrendous and almost led to an early St Louis lead. We know Erik’s quality, so this is not too worrying, big-picture wise.

Griffin Dorsey-5

Not a great performance for Griffin but he certainly put in the effort. He had an amazing defense play in the first half that saved a near certain goal. Going forward, he was doing his best but the deliveries were not good enough. He did have one good cross to Micael that could’ve been a goal.

Artur-5

This was not Artur’s best performance for sure. Like last season, he can struggle to get into games while on the road. This problem was always further shown when Hector Herrera was out of the lineup. Artur is sort of a one-dimensional player who needs to step up more without Herrera in the team.

Brooklyn Raines-3

We’re happy to see young players get an opportunity to impress but the moment ended up being too big for Raines as he was a passenger for most of the night. He was average at best in all aspects of the game and then his huge mistake at the end took his rating down much further.

Sebastian Kowalczyk-8

Big things are expected of Sebastian this season and he stepped up to the plate in a massive way. He was everywhere for the Dynamo, playing multiple positions and allowing the play to run through him. He had so many slick passages of play and he was rewarded with the important away goal.

Coco Carrasquilla-7

Coco was excellent on the night and was the next best attacking player after Kowalczyk. His movement off the ball was superb and he was able to create lots of space for Kowalczyk to operate. On the ball, he fell flat in the few moments he had to make something happen. He did have an assist to Aliyu that was correctly called offside.

Aliyu Ibrahim-7

Aliyu started the game on the left wing and looked really good playing out of the back. He was doing his best to help out Tate Schmitt when the press was triggered. When he moved to striker, he was not involved too much but looked good in his limited opportunities. His goal may have been offside, but he was eventually able to create a goal with a superb cross to Kowalczyk.

Sebastian Ferreira-N/A

Sebastian was finally given a chance to start for the Dynamo again and it was cut short due to a hamstring injury around 20 minutes into the game. It’s hard to judge his performance in such a limited time. We’re wishing him a speedy recovery.

Substitutes

Brad Smith-2

I was excited to see Brad Smith get a lot of minutes when Sebas came off the field, but he did not make the most of this opportunity. He did not do enough to help out Tate in the buildup and was nearly nonexistent in the final third.

Gabe Segal, Daniel Steres, and Jan Gregus-N/A

All three players came on with less than fifteen minutes to go. At this point in the game, the Dynamo were playing for a draw and that didn’t allow many opportunities for Gregus and Segal. Segal’s work ethic was nice to see and Steres looked his usual solid self in the back.

Head Coach

Ben Olsen-7

It’s hard to be too harsh on Ben when he was dealt an awful hand to start the season. There were lots of poor individual performances, but the team as a whole played fine given the circumstances. The Dynamo might be a little lucky that St Louis also looked below par.