Player Ratings: Birmingham Legion 2-1 Charleston BatteryOver the hump day?
It had been 178 days since the last time the Legion won back-to-back games. That was back on October 13th last year when the Three Sparks dispatched Austin Bold 3-1 after handling Indy Eleven by the same score. Those were both home games, though. Interestingly, it was also a Sunday-Wednesday turnaround.
Back then the Legion were cruising; right now they have been struggling so these 6 points are much more gratifying. And hard earned. Our player ratings for the game:
GK: MATT VAN OEKEL – 7. On the goal Matt tried to handle both the cross and the shot but couldn’t. At least one of those was the job of his back line. 2 saves in the game, one great and the other routine.
LB: RYAN JAMES – 7. A full 90 for Ryan. Only 50% accurate on 32 passes. He won only 4 of 13 duels and logged 1 tackle, 1 clearance and 4 interceptions. But it felt like he played way better than the numbers say.
CB: PHANUEL KAVITA – 8. Phanny was a hefty 86.7% accurate on 30 passes. Oddly, he won only 3 of 9 duels and had 1 tackle and 4 clearances. The numbers are clearly lying on this one.
CB: ZACH HERIVAUX – 7. Zach was a relatively weak 67.7% on target with 31 passes, but won 6 of 10 duels and put up 3 clearances, 1 block and 2 interceptions. He was possibly at fault for the goal though. Subbed out at the 80 minute mark.
RB: JONNY DEAN – 8. Jonny was flying around the field in his usual manner, seemingly unhampered by whatever he did to his hand. Completed 28 of 40 passes and sent in 3 crosses. He went 3 of 6 in duels, and put up 1 tackle, 1 clearance and 1 interception.
LM: ANDERSON ASIEDU – 8. No yellow card, only a stern talking to this time out. 87.9% on target with 33 passes. He won only 4 of 11 duels, very unlike himself, but created 2 chances and had 2 tackles and 2 clearances.
RM: MIKEY LOPEZ – 8. Paired with Ando for the second straight game, Mikey had a very good performance over 80 minutes. Aside from assisting on Prosper’s second goal, he created 2 chances, had an 81.6% completion rate on 38 passes, won 6 of 9 duels, and recorded 3 tackles, 4 clearances and 1 interception.
LAM: MARLON SANTOS – 6.5. Coming off a 7-shot game at the weekend, Marlon’s leg was apparently a bit tired. He had only 1 shot in this one, albeit on target. He was perhaps harshly treated with the team’s only yellow card, as the foul was relatively soft. However, he won 9 of 19 duels, so was clearly heavily involved in the 80 minutes he played.
CAM:BRUNO LAPA – 8. A typically solid 67 minutes from Bruno. He connected on 30 of 35 passes, took 3 shots, 1 on target, and generated 2 chances.
RAM: PROSPER KASIM – 9. 2 rocket goals is going to get you Man of the Match honors almost every time. He took 4 more shot apart from those goals, 2 on target and 1 blocked. Now can we somehow transplant him a second left foot?
FWD: ENZO MARTINEZ – 8. Enzo did what a forward is supposed to do. That is, get caught offside a lot. 4 times, in fact. He only took 2 shots, 1 off frame and 1 blocked, but did all the hard work to create Prosper’s first scoring chance. For some reason, the official stats do not credit him with the assist. Scandalous.
SUB: JUAN AGUDELO – 7. Connecting on 8 of 9 passes and 1 shot on goal is a pretty good performance for just 23 official minutes.
SUB: EDI HORVAT – 6.5. In the rare triple sub with 10 minutes left, Edi finally got back on the field. He made an immediate nuisance of himself, manhandling 2 defenders and getting a yellow for it in his first 2 minutes. No shots, although he did have one good chance late that he was not able finish off. An Enzo-Edi forward pairing would be awesome. In a gloriously brutal way.
SUB: THOMAS VANCAEYEZEELE – 7. Only 3 of 5 passes connected, but he logged an interception. It’s called closing the game out.
SUB: JAKE RUFE – 7. Completed all 4 of his passes but recorded nothing else. But that was what was needed.
HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 7. It must have felt good to have all his options available for once. Tommy also got the team playing on the front foot from the first whistle despite being on short rest. More of the same please.
