Houston Dynamo player ratings vs Sporting Kansas City

(image via Houston Dynamo FC)

The Dynamo continued their home dominance, this time in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, with a 1-0 win against Sporting Kansas City. Let’s take a look at how everyone performed.

Starters

Andrew Tarbell-7

Andrew came in and did a pretty solid job in his second appearance. He made four fairly comfortable saves. He did find himself lucky with how poor Kansas City’s finishing was. The distribution was poor, but making the saves you should make, and a clean sheet gets you a solid score.

Mujeeb Murana-8

What a debut for Mujeeb Murana! Mujeeb has worked his way up the ranks from the Academy to Dynamo 2 and now made his first start with the first team. Murana was massive in this game making five clearances and playing his heart out to earn a clean sheet.

Ethan Bartlow-7

Ethan only played the first half but was incredibly solid in that half. Per usual, he sat a little deeper as the last line of defense and he played that role brilliantly. It was probably good to give him a half of rest to have him ready for Seattle on Saturday.

Chase Gaspar-1

In only his second start, he made a disastrous decision to foul Marinos Tzionis as the last man back. This foul had him sent off in the first half, completely changing the look of the game. Before the red card he was not too impressive either. You can make a case that he saved a goal, but he also put the team at a man disadvantage for a large portion of the game. It just made the rest of the team’s job harder, and they get massive credit for that.

Griffin Dorsey-7

Featuring for the first time in quite a few games, Dorsey put in a great shift, being very active defensively. Before the red card, he was very good transitioning the ball forward. Dorsey also led the team in touches as his high engine pushed the team on.

Brad Smith-5

Brad Smith finally got his first start in orange, and he performed alright. He was not bad or great, just ok. He was a lot better prior to the red card when he was able to carry the ball forward and provide a real threat. After the red he struggled to get super involved in the game.

Luis Caicedo-7

Caicedo provided solid cover defensively in only a two-man midfield. Luis was good on the ball, completing all his long balls. Caicedo also made two tackles and three interceptions.

Brooklyn Raines-4

Another game where Brooklyn struggled to get super involved. Raines only had 18 touches and barely contributed defensively. As the Dynamo barely saw the ball, it was a tough night for the young midfielder.

Luis Quinones-5

It was another poor outing from Quinones again as he provided nothing but turnovers to the offense. He managed to only complete 33% of his passes and was dispossessed time and time again in transition. He did make some massive contributions defensively. He made two tackles and had a massive four interceptions.

Sebastian Ferreira-3

Sebas got himself his third start this season and once again failed to make the most of it. While this was not entirely his fault with the way the game played out, his poor hold-up play did not help his case. Sebas appears too weak to have much of an impact in these types of games.

Thor Ulfarsson-7

Thor opened his account for the season with an insane goal from long range. It was definitely the goal of the season for the Dynamo so far. Thor was very active on and off the ball until the red card. After the red card he also struggled to possess the ball and make an impact.

Subs

Micael-8

Following last weekend’s great performance, Micael had an immense performance to close out the game. He only played the second half but was the best player on the field for that half. In only 45 minutes he made a whopping seven clearances. Micael made an incredible tackle towards the end of the game to earn a goal kick to chew some of the last few minutes off the clock.

Djevencio van der Kust-5

Finally making his long-awaited debut for the Dynamo, van der Kust looked alright. He struggled to get involved in the play like Smith. He contributed to the solid defensive shape but did not offer much else.

Aliyu Ibrahim-5

Aliyu, also making his debut, struggled to get on the ball as he only made eight touches. There is not too much to gain out of a fifteen-minute cameo, but it was nice to see him debut. He did make one great run and pass to Sebas to get the ball in the corner late on.

Charles Auguste and Talen Maples-N/A

Two more debuts for the Dynamo, which was incredible to see. They both earned those minutes with impressive performances weekly for Dynamo 2.  The two only played a few minutes and did their job to see out the game.

Coach

Ben Olsen-8

Ben set up the team in a new wing back shape that seemed to be working quite well up until the red card. Ben was able to motivate the team to put every ounce of energy they had into defending their lead. This is now seven clean sheets in eleven games under Ben Olsen, quite an impressive start for the new coach.