Houston Dynamo player ratings vs New York Red Bulls

(image via Houston Dynamo FC)

The Houston Dynamo have had their first loss of the 2024 MLS season at the hands of the New York Red Bulls. Let’s take a look at how the players performed.

Starters

Steve Clark-6

This was not a game where Steve Clark needed to stand out. He made the saves he needed to and there was not much more he could have done on either goal that went in. The first save against Sean Nealis was very impressive, but one we would expect Steve to make.

Griffin Dorsey-4

Dorsey is becoming “Mr. Consistent” this season, but not in the way we would like. This was another game where he was just very average. He played some good defense and got forward, but he is still missing that spark we expect out of him. Not sure who he was marking on the first Red Bulls goal.

Erik Sviatchenko-5

Erik had some really nice moments in this game, particularly whenever Emil Forsberg would make runs into the box with the ball at his feet. Erik did great to put him off every time. However, for the first goal, his lack of communication with Artur led to a wide-open Elias Manoel at the back post.

Micael-8 (MOTM)

Micael just continues to impress in all aspects of the position. The block he made on Forsberg in the first half was some of the best defending you will see all season. His play out of the back was always impressive against one of the best pressing teams in MLS.

Tate Schmitt-5

This was a weird game for Tate where it felt like he was just there not doing much of anything. The Red Bulls didn’t seem to attack him much and he did not offer much of anything going forward before being subbed out at half time. The only notable interaction in his whole time on the field was missing Nealis on the header that led to Steve’s first save of the game.

Artur-2

This one really hurts because we are so used to seeing Artur having a consistent seven and above almost every week, but this was a disaster of a performance for him. The Red Bulls targeted him a ton in the pressing game in the second half and it led to some extremely soft turnovers for Artur’s high standard. One giveaway led to the game winning goal for the Red Bulls.

Brooklyn Raines-2

Copy and paste what was said about Artur’s second half and apply that to Brooklyn in the first half. Too many sloppy giveaways and it led to the first goal of the game. Happy to see Brooklyn get opportunities, but he is not doing anywhere near enough to keep himself in this lineup going forward once there’s more competition for places.

Sebastian Kowalczyk-5

We have to give Kowalczyk some love for the effort he’s been putting in every game this season. His work rate is incredible, but he lacked that spark you need out of your creative midfielders in this game. He had a very easy chance to score in the second half and hit the post unfortunately.

Coco Carrasquilla-6

This was not Coco’s brightest game at all outside of the magnificent assist he had to Aliyu. It was nice to see Coco stepping up and taking more difficult shots and trying to be the guy for the Dynamo, but he lacks that extra bit of quality most of the time.

Aliyu Ibrahim-7

Aliyu is having a very nice start to the season, this time scoring the goal instead of being the provider. The goal he scored came off a very well-timed run, an excellent touch, and a clinical finish. Happy to see him put away the chances we so often saw him struggle with last season.

Gabe Segal-4

While Gabe Segal is absolutely putting in the work, he might just not have the quality to be a starting striker in this league as of right now. There is room for improvement as he is a younger player, but he just does not get involved enough in the play and his movement off the ball leaves a lot to be desired.

Substitutes

Franco Escobar-7

Franco played the entire second half and looked very impressive. He made loads of tackles and was creative with his passing when he stepped into midfield. Seeing Franco playing more minutes really shows the gap in quality between him and other fullbacks on the roster.

Jan Gregus-5

Gregus came on for Raines at half time and he was a bit of an improvement. He certainly was not great, but his presence helped improve the awful midfield performance in the first half. He created one nice chance with a great cross near the end of the game.

Amine Bassi-5

Nothing special from Bassi in his 23-minute cameo. Good to see him get on the field again but he was not spectacular in any way. He certainly was not bad by any means as well. The long-range pass to Dorsey to pull an incredible save out of Carlos Coronel is exactly what we all want to see on a consistent basis from Bassi this season.

Brad Smith-3

Like he does at the start of games, he did a whole lot of running up and down the sidelines with very little involvement in the game on either side of the ball. It almost feels like he is not even playing at times.

Head Coach

Ben Olsen-7

What more is Ben supposed to do with such a limited arsenal of players at his disposal? The team played very sloppy, like in the other three games. This time the Red Bulls were good enough to pounce on the mistakes unlike St. Louis and Kansas City. Avoiding disaster before reinforcements come is an impressive feat for Olsen who has shown he can put his team in positions to scrape out results when they probably should not.