FC Dallas vs. LA Galaxy: Player Grades
FC Dallas vs. LA Galaxy: Player Grades
FC Dallas got a big win last weekend - let's see which FCD players made the grade.
Welcome to our first Player Grades of the season. FC Dallas went out and got a much needed 3 points agains the visiting L.A. Galaxy, so let’s see which players made the grade.
Players will be graded on a 10 point scale, with a player getting a 10 for a “MLS Player of the Week” performance, 9 for “Man of the Match”, 8 for “MLS Team of the Week” caliber performance, 7 for a good performance, 6 for a solid performance, 5 for a less than desired performance, 4 for a bad overall performance, and 3 or less for a performance that was detrimental to the team (or just plain horrible).
Maarten Paes - (7) Maarten faced 6 shots on goals, allowing 1 goal, and getting 5 saves.
Marco Farfan - (6) Marco had his usual solid workman-like performance. Nothing sexy, he just gets the job done.
Jose Martinez - (6) About as good a performance as you can expect from Martinez. Solid in the back and able to keep mistakes down to a minimum.
Nkosi Tafari - (7) Huge game for Tafari, who did everything necessary to ensure himself another start, and a chance to lock down the starting position vacated by club legend Matt Hedges. Nkosi had a match leading 7 clearances and a match leading 6 aerials won. Nobody else on either team had more than 2! He was second on the team in both total touches (65) and passing accuracy (87.5% on 56 pass attempts).
Ema Twumasi - (6) It’s no secret that Ema is still working on getting back to being 100% fit. So it’s a good sign for the team that Ema was rock solid on defense (3 tackles, 2 clearances). He wasn’t much of a factor in the attack, but that will come as his fitness improves.
Edwin Cerrillo - (5) Edwin did very little to make a case that he should be starting ahead of Facundo Quignon. He was very inconsistent on both sides of the field but was at least effective with his passing (82.2%).
Sebastian Lleget - (6) For a player that is also working towards getting back to 100% fitness and looked slow at times, one could argue that he had a very good game. Lleget led all starters with 93.3% passing accuracy on 46 passing attempts and also added 2 key passes.
Paxton Pomykal - (8) We’re all waiting for Paxton to revert to his pre-injury form, and this match gave us hope that we may finally be getting that version of Pax. His assist to Jesus and his overall play has left us salivating for more.
Paul Arriola - (8) While we were all fawning over the play of Paxton and Jesus, Paul went pretty much unheralded. Paul had a performance worthy of MLS Team of the Week consideration, and I’m surprised he didn’t at least make the bench. It wasn’t pretty, but Paul did what he does best and that is create havoc with sheer hustle, finishing with 2 assists on the night.
Alan Velasco - (7) Velasco keeps teasing us with hints of brilliance, placed neatly between moments of inconsistency. This week, his one brilliant moment led to a much needed goal right before the end of the half with his team trailing by 1.
Jesus Ferreira - (9) Let’s face it — how we rate Chuy comes down to whether he scores or not. Considering this team’s fortunes often hinge on Jesus’s ability to score, it’s clear to see that his brace in a match-winning performance is deserving of Man of the Match.
Bench: Facundo Quignion (6), Jader Obrian (5), Sebastien Ibeagha (6), Tsiki Ntsabeleng (5), and Giovane Jesus (5)
Nothing really to add on the play of those that came off the bench. The match was well in hand by the time any of them came on, and their main priority was to close out the match.