Sporting Kansas City vs Colorado Rapids: Player Ratings

Friends, I am tired of this. We are only seven games into the season, and I am just so, so tired of it already. I don’t understand how with nearly a full-strength lineup you lose at home against one of the worst teams in the league. All that said I still think a few players looked better than others so let us go ahead and rate them.

My scale:

1 – Never Play Again. You shall be cursed to the fifth generation for your travesties.
…
5 – Your play was completely unoffensive. You are a cream wall in an office park building.
…
10 – You are the chosen one! They will forever sing of your aptitude! You are the most interesting man in the world!

Starting XI

Tim Melia – 4.5

Looked good for most of the game before looking really bad at a key moment. I partially blame Robert Castellanos for the weird defensive run he made but I still think Tim should have saved that goal.

Graham Zusi – 4.5

Struggled to provide much attacking spark and was just okay defensively.

Dany Rosero – 6

Looked lively again and would probably score higher but his wondering run up to the box led indirectly to the Colorado goal. Remi Walter and Felipe Hernadez should have covered from him but still.

Robert Castellanos – 4.5

Was defensively fine if unambitious outside of the goal where his defensive run was really weird and opened up too much of the near post to Diego Rubio.

Robert Voloder – 4

Was a black hole offensively and not as solid defensively as he was against Philly.

Remi Walter – 4

Struggled to find the right times to press throughout the game and severely mishandled the play in the leadup to Colorado’s goal.

Felipe Hernandez – 5

Felipe had a pretty good game but also gets dinged for not helping Remi on the goal. It was immediately obvious how much more ground he can cover than Roger and it definitely helped. On the other hand, it was also clear that his passing is not at Roger’s level.

Erik Thommy – 5.5

Looked better than the last game and overall was positive. Did not rise to the heights of last season or even the beginning of this season though.

Johnny Russell – 4

Was able to do typical Johnny things when lined up against defenders but still that lead to only 0.22 XA+XG for him. It’s not good enough.

Alan Pulido – 4.5

Showed calmness on the ball and a great touch but simply did not shoot enough. Maybe I am rating the attackers harshly, but at some point, the offensive players have to play offense.

Daniel Salloi – 4

Struggled again tonight while his XG+XA is better than Pulido’s or Russell’s it does not matter if the conversion is not happening.

Subs

Willy Agada – 4

Did not stretch the backline or really look dangerous at all outside of the weird offside moment where he rounded the keeper… then looked clueless about what to do next.

Marinos Tzionis – 4.5

Looked fine but did nothing to spark an attacking comeback. I still don’t think an attacking mid is really his spot [Editor: my eyes had him wide left and Salloi and Agada playing striker together].

Coach

Peter Vermes – 2.5

Peter does not seem capable of really setting this team up to succeed. And then even more frustrating to watch is the utter inability to identify ways to change a game. You are down a goal, and you leave Volder on instead of bringing in Duke for him? You take Felipe off who is actually playing pretty well instead of Salloi who struggled all night? I just don’t get it.

Conclusion

It is really starting to feel like this team is just not going to be able to pull it together this season. The Starting XI looks disjointed and utterly incapable of playing through zone 14 meaning every damn attack has to come from the wings. It is sooooo static and we don’t seem to have a coach who is capable of sorting out the reason why.