Player Ratings: Loudoun United 3-0 Birmingham Legion

For various reasons we never got to file ratings for last week’s game. To be honest, we were tempted not to file them this week either, as they are going to be bad.

GK: TREVOR SPANGENBERG – 7. It may seem odd to award a goalkeeper Man of the Match honors when he allowed 3 goals, but that’s happening here. Trevor actually made 7 saves on the night, several of them tough and the scoreline could have been a lot worse otherwise.

LB: MOSES MENSAH –5. Both starting fullbacks lasted just 45 minutes in the game in an experiment that obviously didn’t work. Moses attempted just 8 passes, completing 7 but did create a scoring chance on a cross. On defense, he won 3 of 6 duels, and logged just 2 interceptions.

CB: PHANUEL KAVITA – 5. A rare off day for Phanny. A solid 94.2% accuracy rate on 52 passes, but 59 of those were short. He lost a staggering 6 of 7 duels, made 1 clearance and 2 interceptions, and got nutmegged on the third goal. On the upside, he did create a scoring chance.

CB: ALEX CROGNALE – 6. The stats probably make Alex look rather better than he was, as was caught out of position a lot. He won 7 of 10 duels, and recorded  2 tackles, 6 clearances and 5 interceptions. Under fire the whole game, clearly. 72.1% completion rate on 68 passes, and that’s playing with fire for a centerback.

RB: COLLIN SMITH – 5. Collin was a bit more active than his left side counterpart, but not greatly so. 1 unsuccessful cross in attack and 78.9% accurate overall on 19 passes. He lost 2 of 3 duels, and made 1 clearance an 1 interception.

LDM: ANDERSON ASIEDU – 5. The lineup formation shows Ando on the right and Matthew on the left, but that is not how they played. He was the guilty party on the second Loudoun goal, and was far from his normal self. He lost 8 of 14 duels and was a low 70.5% accurate on an also low 44 passes. He did have 1 of the Legion’s 3 shots on target. 2 tackles and 2 interceptions.

RDM: MATTHEW CORCORAN – 5. Matt played 63 minutes and this was his worst performance in a Legion short to date. He connected on 22 of 30 passes (all but 1 short) and had no attacking impact. He lost 6 of 7 duels and logged 1 tackle and 3 clearances.

LAM: JUAN AGUDELO – 7. Juan had 2 shots in the game (only 1 on frame) and was in a whopping 24 duels. Which demonstrated how hard Loudoun was pressing the Legion. He did win 14 of them though, including all 6 aerial duels. He also had 3 clearances and 2 interceptions. That’s not what you need from an attacking mid.

RAM: GABRIEL ALVES – 6. Gabriel started at right wing for some reason, but was pretty quickly moved to a CAM-like role, and then to left back at halftime. Lack of production then was not really his fault. 80.6% accurate on just 30 passes and 1 shot off target. He lost 8 of 12 duels and recorded 2 tackles, 1 clearance and 3 interceptions.

CAM: PROSPER KASIM – 5. Prosper started at CAM, again not his best role, but was moved to the right wing where he is more effective. Or not in this case. In 72 minute he made 4 unsuccessful crosses and had no shots. Like most of the team he was outfought, losing 7 of 10 duels.

FWD: NECO BRETT – 6. A bit hard to criticize a striker who gets no service. Just 2 shots, 1 on frame, 1 off. Not much else to speak of.

SUB: ENZO MARTINEZ – 5. Enzo came on at halftime, so presumably he was not nursing an injury. His presence changed virtually nothing. No shots, 1 unsuccessful cross. A bad day at the office.

SUB: JAKE RUFE – 5.5. Other than the yellow card, Jake wasn’t too bad, but he also wasn’t influential. 2 of 4 in duels, 1 clearance, 1 block. He also had 1 blocked shot himself.

SUB: BEN REVENO – 6. Ben played an official 27 minutes, in which he made 24 passes, connecting on 17 of them. He won 4 of 5 duels, but was otherwise uninvolved.

SUB: DIBA NWEGBO – 6. Diba came on with 18 minutes left in regulation and as a striker was able to do very little.

HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 5. Clearly Tommy had some other things on his mind this week, and the departure of Khano Smith a few weeks ago left a big leadership hole. Tommy didn’t pass the buck, though. Nevertheless, this was a blatant case of underestimating the opponent and overthinking the game plan.