Player Ratings: Birmingham Legion 3-1 New York Red Bulls IIBye bye, MLS 2
Yeah we know, it’s late again. Here it is though.
GK: MATT VAN OEKEL – 8. MVO maintained his perfect record of never stopping a PK attempt, but otherwise handled 5 shots extremely well and was a very unusual 100% accurate on 16 passes. He drops int 2nd place in clean sheets as Miami’s Connor Sparrow puts up a couple of big games.
LB: JAKE RUFE – 8. With Mikey Lopez serving a yellow card accumulation suspension, Jake had to go the full 90, and looked pretty healthy doing so. He was an excellent 81.4% accurate on 59 passes, created 1 scoring chance, won 5 of 8 duels and logged 2 tackles, 1 clearance and 4 interceptions.
CB: PHANUEL KAVITA – 7.5. Phanny was impassable as usual, and was involved in only 2 duels (losing 2). He made 2 clearances and 1 interception and had an excellent accuracy rate of 96.4% on 56 passes. He picked up a yellow for dissent on the PK foul, which was frankly dumb, and resulted in both center backs getting a card on the same play.
CB: ALEX CROGNALE – 6.5. Alex was probably a tad lucky not to get a red card on the PK foul; it was clearly a DOGSO but could have merited a yellow for the severity of the foul too. A bone-headed play. Other than that, he was good on 45 of 50 passes and had 2 shots, 1 on and 1 off target. Defensively he won 4 of 9 duels and produced 1 tackle, 1 clearance and 1 interception.
RB: JONNY DEAN – 8. Fullbacks don’t score often, but Jonny’s was a very nice score. He created 1 additional chance, but missed on his only crossing attempt. Defensively strong, winning 7 of 12 duels and recording 2 tackles, 1 clearance and 1 interception.
LM: ANDERSON ASIEDU – 7.5. Ando is clearly enjoying his new more attacking role, although his defensive prowess remains on display. No shots, but he did create 1 chance and even managed to be offside once. And as usual, he was nearly impossible to dispossess. Silly yellow card though.
CM: ZACH HERIVAUX – 7. Zach as the effective 4th defender wasn’t really challenged all that much in this game, which was played mostly in New York’s half. Because of that, losing 11 of 14 duels wasn’t that big a deal and he even managed to generate a scoring opportunity. Rested after 82 minutes.
RM: BRUNO LAPA – 9. The 2 assists and everything else with them earn Bruno our Man of the Match honors. He attempted 3 shots, with 2 on target and created a whopping 6 scoring chances. He made 8 crosses and connected on 2 of them. Overall passing was good for an attacking player at 77.2% accurate on 57 passes.
LW: ENZO MARTINEZ – 9. 8 shots in the game for Enzo. Only 1 went in, and 1 more was on target, but of the 4 off target shots at least 2 were very close, and he knew it. 2 more were blocked. And keeping the ball deep he won 7 of 12 duels.
RW: MARLON SANTOS – 8. Marlon had to leave the game after 74 minutes clearly in pain with a leg injury that needed some extended attention in the dugout. Prior to that he made 3 shots, 1 on, 1 off and 1 blocked. Similar to Enzo, he won 7 of 11 duels. All told a good game.
FWD: JUAN AGUDELO – 8. Juan’s only goal was on the PK, but he had a total of 4 shots, including a twofer attempt that hit the left upright and the followup going just wide right immediately before he was taken out in the 70th minute to ice that gimpy knee. 3 chances created and his output is clearly improving.
SUB: SADIK BALARABE – 8. Back in form after a roughish game in Memphis, Sadik had 2 shots on target in 20 official minutes. That’s exactly what you want from a late attacking sub.
SUB: MATAEO BUNBURY – 7. Not exactly an emergency replacement for Marlon, Mataeo was good in his 16 minutes. 1 shot off target and good on 6 of 7 passes.
SUB: RYAN JAMES – 8. In just 8 official minutes Ryan managed to rack up 7 passes, completing all of them, created 1 scoring chance and was offside twice. Way to keep the ball at the other end.
HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 8. Back to the 4-3-3 and of course it worked. Rudely dissed by New York head coach Ibrahim Sekagya for the post-game handshake.
