Houston Dynamo player ratings vs Portland Timbers

(image via Aldo Canale)

The Houston Dynamo got their first win of the 2024 MLS regular season with a 1-0 victory against the Portland Timbers. Let’s take a look at how everyone performed.

Starters

Steve Clark-9

Another excellent performance from Steve where he had to make four saves. The double save he made in the first half was some of the finest goalkeeping we have seen from Steve in his time in Houston. This was also his first shutout of the MLS season.

Griffin Dorsey-8

This was much much better than the recent performances by Griffin. Weirdly, this was a night of defensive highlights for a player who is more known for his attacking ability. This was the only game I can remember where Dorsey led the team in tackles. Love to see Dorsey hyping up the crowd as well!

Ethan Bartlow-9

Ethan is having a wonderful start to this season with another incredible performance. Alongside a terrific defensive display, his distribution out of the back was the best we have ever seen from him. He was stepping up into the midfield and playing direct passes into the attackers like we see with Erik Sviatchenko.

Micael-9

Just like Ethan, he continued his wonderful start to the season. He made multiple game saving interventions and allowed almost nothing from Dairon Asprilla all game. Like Ethan, his distribution was also fantastic.

Franco Escobar-7

Franco was his usual strong self once again. His passing was rock solid and he provided some strong defense down the left side. Not a standout game, but he did his job well, as per usual.

Artur-6

Artur was very good for most of the 90 minutes. He did, however, lose Evander off the ball in a few moments. His passing was also less accurate than we come to expect with Artur. This is a very high standard to be fair to Artur.

Jan Gregus-9

That was probably the closest thing we’ll see to a Hector Herrera level performance for the time being. Jan was everywhere in this game, contributing to both sides of the ball at an extremely high level. His 97% passing accuracy was incredibly impressive and a huge reason the Dynamo controlled the game as well as they did.

Sebastian Kowalczyk-5

Sebastians’s work off the ball was immense, making multiple blocks and tackles. However, on the ball, he left a lot to be desired in some key areas of the field. Not sure if he will work well while Bassi is playing striker. They seem to get into each other’s way at times.

Coco Carrasquilla-6

Coco had an extremely quiet game outside of the one chance he created for Aliyu that became the winning goal. Like Kowalczyk, it seemed as if he got in the way of Bassi too much and the spacing was off all game. He did create the winning goal, so it is hard to be super harsh on Coco.

Ibrahim Aliyu-8

Aliyu has improved so much this season and it is starting to lead to results for the Dynamo. He was incredibly progressive every time he had the ball at his feet. His willingness to make those late diagonal runs into the box led to the opening goal of the game. Extremely happy with his development this season.

Amine Bassi-5

Bassi gave an odd performance, where at times he looked brilliant and in other moments he was the least effective player on the field. He dropped deep and progressed the ball into some key areas, but when that happened there was nobody in the box to receive the next pass. The “Bassi at striker” experiment sort of works in moments, but it is clear they need someone operating in the box if the team wants to score more goals.

Substitutes

Gabe Segal-3

Gabe Segal came on in the 76th minute and only had four touches. It is becoming increasingly clearer that he’s not at the level needed to play a huge role in this team. Hopefully he can improve and evolve into a regular player as the season progresses.

Brad Smith and Brooklyn Raines-N/A

Both players came into the game in garbage time to seal all three points. They both did their job, but were not on long enough to give a rating.

Head Coach

Ben Olsen-9

Another Ben Olsen masterclass where he was able to get a great shift out of a team lacking any top attacking talent. The way he’s managed to keep this defense organized and operating near the highest level in the country while missing a leader like Sviatchenko is a testament to how good of a coach Olsen is. The more performances we see like this, the better chance the Dynamo have of staying afloat while Hector recovers.