Player Ratings: Birmingham Legion 3-1 El Paso Locomotive

The USL site has the Legion formation listed as a 4-1-4-1 with Dawson McCartney at left back.  That’s not exactly a natural position for him and in fact the overall movement of the starting XI was different. Looking at the lineup I had expected a 3-4-3. What we ended up with was a – get this – 3-1-3-1-2 formation. Yes, that is definitely a thing and it is kind of a variant on the 3-4-3. More on that in Diving Deep later this week but for the player ratings just take it for granted.

GK: MATT VAN OEKEL – 7. MVO was rather hung out to dry by his defense on the El Paso goal. Otherwise they kept him relatively unoccupied and he was forced into just 2 saves. He was in complete command of his box all afternoon. Even his passing was good at 80% accuracy on 35 tries.

LB: RAMIZ HAMOUDA – 7. Ramiz was partly to blame for letting Cabrera through on goal but that was really his only mistake. 2 tackles, 6 clearances and 1 interception and he won all 5 of his duels. No attacking contributions but his passing was a staggering 71 for 74 although n70 of them were short).

CB: JAKE RUFE – 7. Likewise no impact on the attack but Jake-of-all-trades was a rock at the back. 1 tackle, 2 clearances, 2 interceptions. 2 of 5 in duels. 89% accurate on 73 passes. That doesn’t sound like much but he was very hard for El Paso to get by.

RB: STEPHEN TURNBULL – 8. Only 45 minutes for Stephen; expect that to increase over the next couple of games. Still, 2 tackles and 3 clearances and going 4 for 8 in duels in a half is pretty good. He completed 18 of 21 passes and was the assist on Ronaldo’s first goal with a beautiful through ball.

DM: SAM MCILLHATTON – 7. Getting your first fully professional start on a team with its management in flux and in a foreign country has to be tough. Sam went the full 90 though and did not disappoint. 1 tackle and 1 clearance, 3 and 3 in duels. 49 passes, with an 87.8% accuracy rate. He also created 2 scoring chance.

LM: DAWSON MCCARTNEY – 7. I stated above that Dawson was listed at left back. The video is not entirely clear but I am fairly certain it was Dawson who let Cabrera through thinking he was offside (he wasn’t). that was his only misstep though. Defensively he had just 1 tackle and won only 1 of his 5 duels but he iced the game in stoppage time and that makes up for everything.

CM: ENZO MARTINEZ – 7. Wearing the captain’s armband Enzo was fired up, especially at the end. He didn’t record any shots but was credited with a chance creation. He won 5 of 6 duels and made 3 tackle and 1 clearance. He connected on 81.5% of 27 pass attempts.

RM: TYLER PASHER – 5.5. Another 45-minute player, Tyler was sub-par. All of which means he is not yet back up to speed. Just 69.6% accurate on 23 passes and he lost all 4 of his duels. Other than that he got really dumb yellow card. That’s it.

CAM: KOBE HERNANDEZ-FOSTER – 7. Kobe played 70 minutes in a slightly more attacking role than usual although he really isn’t truly suited to the spot he was playing in. Still, he found targets with 27 of 35 passes and had one shot off target.

FWD: DANNY TREJO – 7. Danny went 63 minutes and did very well with them. He sent in 2 crosses, 1 successfully, and created 1 scoring chance. He was 16 for 18 is passing too. Listed here as a striker but he spent a good amount of time playing wide.

FWD: RONALDO DAMUS – 8. Ronaldo really, really wanted that hat-trick and he came very close. In addition to the 2 goals he had 1 more shot on target and yet another off target. Finally showing that attacking speed the team needs. Man of the Match, obviously.

SUB: MOSES MENSAH – 7. Moses doesn’t get an assist, but it was his juking in the box that got the penalty. Nicely done. Defensively, 1 tackle and 3 clearances to go with 2 of 5 duels won. Only 13 passes, which seems low, but he connected on all of them.

SUB: PRESTON TABORT ETAKA – . It’s not often that a sub gets subbed out but Preston put it all out there. Including his face. Ouch. 2 shots, both on target and 1 chance creation. All over the field and generally a pest that the Locomotive couldn’t figure out.

SUB: ROMAN TORRES – 6. Roman replaced Danny but wasn’t able to reproduce his usual set piece heroics. Even so, he had 1 shot on target. He only attempted 5 passes amd missed on 3 of them. That’s not so great.

SUB: SEBASTIAN TREGARTHEN – . Back to full training Sebastian came on for Kobe and finished out the game well. Good on all 4 of his passed and wo his only duel. 1 unsuccessful cross but 1 chance created.

SUB: TIAGO SUAREZ – 7. On in second half stoppage for Preston, Tiago was surprisingly active in short minutes. 1 tackle and 1 clearance and perfect on 2 duels. He failed to connect on his only pass but that was the only black mark.

HEAD COACH: ERIC AVILA – 8. You can’t ask for much more from a newly-minted interim head coach than a solid win with the best performance of the season to date. His game plan was on the money and creative to boot. Excellent work.