Houston Dynamo vs FC Dallas player ratings

(image via Aldo Canale)

The Houston Dynamo lost their home opener against FC Dallas in a self-destructive 2-1 defeat. Let’s take a look at how everyone performed.

Starters

Andrew Tarbell-5.5

Andrew was just ok in his debut as the first-choice goalkeeper for the Houston Dynamo. He made one routine save and had not much to do outside of the two goals conceded. On the first goal, that is the toughest position in the sport to be put in as a goalkeeper. For the second goal, he shouldn’t have came out in hindsight, but to give him the benefit of the doubt, most attackers would not have pulled off what Anderson Julio did there.

Griffin Dorsey-7.5

Dorsey was up to his usual business, bombing up and down the field all game long. He was one of the best players on the field in transition with seven progressive carries. His crossing was solid, but not special. He played a really good defensive game as well.

Ethan Bartlow-3.5

Defensively, Ethan had a stellar game for 89 minutes. However, that one minute where he played an awful pass out of the back to hand Petar Musa a goal completely changed the game. We have seen Ethan be very mature playing out of the back in the past and I don’t see this being a long-term issue.

Obafemi Awodesu-8.5

What a debut for Obafemi who was brilliant with the second team last season. He was excellent playing out of the back and played a great defensive game, barely putting a foot wrong. The only critique is that he could have been better getting on the end of offensive set pieces.

Daniel Steres-7.5

This was a vintage Steres display where he quietly put in a solid performance and elevated his defense. While age can be a concern as the season goes on, Daniel looked just as good as always while not being a special difference maker.

Artur-8.5

Artur could arguably have been the best player on the field for either team as he put in a fantastic midfield performance on both sides of the ball. He had an impressive three tackles and four interceptions as well as being a huge part of the buildup going forward.

Jack McGlynn-9

Not to put too much pressure on Jack, but it was almost like Hector Herrera never left. McGlynn had well over 100 touches of the ball, completing nearly 90 passes at a highly accurate rate. He had a whopping fourteen progressive passes and was key in setting up the opening goal of the game. The only critique is that he gave the ball away in the buildup to the winning goal from Dallas. Did he get fouled? Potentially, but the whistle is the whistle.

Amine Bassi-8

Amine put in his normal creative display with three shot-creating actions and six progressive passes. He played a huge role in the pressing department as well, opening up opportunities for his teammates to win the ball back. He took his goal really well; you just wish he had that extra bit of juice to help find another goal.

Sebastian Kowalczyk-6.5

Kowalczyk worked his tail off as always and was huge in buildup for the team. He still lacks that special sauce that Coco had, but he is still improving every year and should be a valuable member of the squad this season. The only wish is he could have gotten a little more involved in the second half.

Aliyu Ibrahim-4.5

Ibrahim has a lot of pressure on him to perform given his lack of goal contributions in the second half of last season. He picked up where he left off with a wasteful performance where he failed to create much with his opportunities.

Ezequiel Ponce-6

Ponce is such a great player in the pressing department and is going to be such a key cog in the team this season. However, he lacked that bit of quality on the ball and did not seem to have much chemistry yet with certain players. This should improve over time. He created the first goal, winning a duel with his center back to find Bassi for an easy tap in.

Substitutes

Nicolas Lodeiro-5.5

Lodeiro looked sharp at moments in his debut but never really created anything of note. You can see the ideas, but the execution was not quite there just yet. As he builds up chemistry with Bassi and Ponce, expect Lodeiro to be a huge piece off the bench.

Gabe Segal, Franco Escobar, and Erik Dueñas-N/A

All three players came off the bench after the 80th minute and they didn’t play enough to receive a grade. It was nice to see Dueñas make his debut, even if he did not get time to contribute much.

Head Coach

Ben Olsen-7

It is hard to be too harsh on Ben when the first goal was a complete individual error that you cannot blame on the coach. For the second goal, you can make a real argument that it should not have stood as well. Overall, the performance was solid. You can see some new patterns of play implemented to lead to more goal scoring. It was just unlucky to not get any points on the day.