Player Ratings: Birmingham Legion 2-1 Hartford Athletic

Well, it feels good to get a win under our belts, doesn’t it? All things considered, the final score was flattering to Hartford, whose Man of the Match was the woodwork. Still, it took until late for the Legion to ice it. Here are our player ratings for the match:

GK: MATT VAN OEKEL – 7. 2 shots on goal, but one he had no chance on and the other was relatively routine. The clean sheet would have been nice. He was given a yellow card for complaining about the blatant foul on Marlon late, but we will not mark him down for acting as any rational person would.

CB: PHANUEL KAVITA – 8. Phanuel managed a massive 97% accuracy rate on 33 passes. Even in the attacking half he was 91.7%. All but 1 of those was short, though. He did lose 4 of 5 duels, but was relatively unchallenged defensively, logging 2 clearances and 1 interception.

CB: THOMAS VANCAEYEZEELE – 7.5. Despite picking up an early yellow, Thomas also put up good numbers. 88.1% passing accuracy on 59 attempts, won 6 of 10 duels to go with 2 tackles, 2 clearances and 2 interceptions.

CB: ALEX CROGNALE – 8. The back line was solid yesterday. Alex was 42 of 49 passing, won all 4 of his duels and recorded 1 tackle, 4 clearances and 3 interceptions.

LWB: JONNY DEAN – 7. Jonny’s passing was pretty ordinary, with only 72.7% of 33 passes completed, although both of his attempted crosses found a target (a very positive development). Switched from left to right with 26 minutes left with unsurprisingly no change in his effectiveness. Also won 7 of 11 duels.

LM: ANDERSON ASIEDU – 9. As if 90.2% passing accuracy on 51 tries wasn’t enough for a central midfielder, Ando was in command everywhere all the time and created 3 chances. Oh, and he took a whopping 5 shots. 1 went wide, 1 nearly broke the crossbar, 1 was blocked and the other of course went in. He’s probably feeling about 6’6” right now and is our Man of the Match.

RM: ENZO MARTINEZ – 8. The Ando-Enzo partnership worked almost flawlessly in this game. Enzo attempted even more passes – 66 all told. He was 77.3% accurate, but 10 of those passes were long. Also created 3 scoring chances and took 3 shots, 2 off frame and 1 blocked. But he got the key assist.

RWB: MIKEY LOPEZ – 8. Played 74 minutes and was a terror that entire time. He made a total of 46 passes, connecting on 89.1%. He won only 3 of 10 duels, but was not responsible for covering Appolon on the Hartford goal.

LAM:BRUNO LAPA – 8. More effective passing. Bruno was 93.5% accurate on 46 passes in 66 minutes. That’s almost unheard of for an attacking player. He was also 89.7% accurate in the attacking half. No shots, although he was very busy in the box.

RAM: PROSPER KASIM – 8. After a great evening Thursday, Prosper followed it with a very creditable 83 minutes Sunday. He connected 78% of 41 passes and took 3 shots, 1 on target, one off target and 1 blocked.

FWD: JUAN AGUDELO – 8.5. Do we care that he got a yellow card? Not really. He scored his first Legion goal and that’s truly matters. He was also 95.2% accurate on 21 passes (not a forward’s job most of the time). Like Ando he hit the woodwork (with a solid header), had 1 shot saved and 1 blocked.

SUB: MARLON SANTOS – 8. It’s not often that a substitute gets subbed himself, and Marlon was pretty upset about it, even with just a minute left in the game. He played an official 23 minutes and was influential from the get go. He did miss what should have been an easy goal and had 1 other longish attempt off target.

SUB: EDI HORVAT- 7. Didn’t really do very much in 24 minutes. He completed 1 of 3 passes and had no attempts on goal, although he did create 1 good chance.

SUB: RYAN JAMES – 7. Played 16 minutes in relief of Mikey. Took just 9 passes for a lowly 66.7% accuracy rate and went 1 of 2 on crosses.

SUB: MACKY DIOP – 8. In just 7 official minutes he was ultimately the game changer. He completed 2 of 3 passes (the bad one being a cross), had 1 shot on target and 1 blocked. But he won a corner in stoppage time, and won the second corner resulting from that which resulted in the winning goal.

SUB: GRAYSON DUPONT – N/A. OK, he was a perfect 100% passing. But 1 action in 1 minute is not enough to get a rating. Sorry, Grayson.

HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 8. Not sure if Tommy told the team to settle down in the second half, but his initial game plan was great and the game should have been done and dusted by half time. The team is stretching the field, moving fast and getting out wide. A season changer? We shall see.