Player Ratings: Charleston Battery 0-3 Birmingham Legion

This was the Legion’s widest margin of victory all year, and it wasn’t exactly surprising. The team as a whole put in a solid performance against a clearly inferior opponent. Here’s how the Forge sees them as individuals:

GK: MATT VAN OEKEL – 7. Matt made 1 save in each half, both from Goebel Oquendo and neither of them difficult. Still having trouble with passing: just 50% accurate on 20 attempts.

LB: MIKEY LOPEZ – 7.5. Back from suspension Mikey was this game’s replacement for Jake Rufe and pretty quickly picked up another yellow card. It didn’t seem to slow him down much though. He was largely uninvolved in attack and relatively untested in defense. He went 23 of 28 in passing, won 2 of 3 duels, and had 1 tackle and 3 interceptions in 78 minutes.

CB: PHANUEL KAVITA – 8. Rather more active than his centerback partner, Phanny’s passing accuracy was 84.6% on a relatively meager 26 passes, he won all 3 of his duels and recorded 1 tackle, 3 clearances and 1 interception.

CB: ALEX CROGNALE – 7. Alex was coming off a terrible evening in Atlanta and really needed a confidence booster. Having pretty much nothing to do may not have helped much. He lost both of his duels, was forced into just 1 clearance and completed 80.6% of his passes.

RB: JONNY DEAN – 9. A goal, an assist and raising Jake Rufe’s shirt are pretty much all Jonny needed for the Man of the Match award, but he also racked up 5 wins in 7 duels, 2 tackles, 3 clearance and 4 interceptions. In other words, he was everywhere.

LDM: ANDERSON ASIEDU – 7.5. The Legion isn’t the Legion without Ando in the starting XI. The Little Tank tried just 28 passes, and connected on 71.4% of them. However, defensively he won 7 of 12 duels, made 4 tackles and 3 interceptions. He also created 3 scoring chances. Rested after 78 minutes. Picked up a yellow card, to which he strongly but wrongly objected.

RDM: ZACH HERIVAUX – 9. So far, this has been Zach’s year to shine. His contribution to the team has been critical. Saturday he completed 38 of 42 passes (including an 87,5% accuracy rate in attack). He also won 9 of a massive 15 duels and made 2 tackles. On top of that he created 2 chances. A great game.

RAM: MARLON SANTOS – 7.5. Marlon missed on just 2 of his 12 passes, attempted 2 shots, 1 off target (barely) and 1 blocked. He generated 2 chances and as usual spent a lot of his time on the ground. Given a break after 67 minutes. Spoiled it a bit with a yellow card.

CAM: ENZO MARTINEZ – 9. Enzo now leads the team in goals (6) and assists (3, tied with Prosper). In addition to his goal he had 2 more shots on target and one off frame for a total of 3 chances created. It is blatantly obvious that he is now the heart of this team.

LAM: PROSPER KASIM – 8. No golazo in his 60-minute return to the lineup, but he did get an assist. 2 shots off target, but he was pumping balls into the box like crazy, and from both sides (again). And was on target too: 95.7% accurate on 23 passes.

FWD: JUAN AGUDELO – 8. No goals for the Legion’s starting striker, but not for lack of trying. 4 total shots, 2 on target, 2 off. He was also offside twice and generally was making a pest of himself for the Battery defense. Given a breather after 77 minutes.

SUB: RYAN JAMES – 8. 1 shot. 1 goal. Pretty much all you need from a sub. 30 official minutes and he made the most of them, clearly. Completed 6 of 7 passes, won 3 of 4 duels, and had 1 tackle, 1 clearance and 1 interception.

SUB: MATAEO BUNBURY – 7. Didn’t quite light things up in his Legion debut, and the stats don’t really support it, but he was fairly impressive and could be a game-changer going forward.

SUB: BRUNO LAPA – 7. 13 official minutes in clean-up duty, although it’s not as if Charleston was making any kind of mess. 1 pass, 1 tackle. That’s about it.

SUB: MATTHEW CORCORAN – 7. 12 official minutes on the field, finished 3 of 4 passes, won 1 duel, made 1 tackle and 1 block and had 1 blocked shot himself. Not bad at all.

SUB: GRAYSON DUPONT – 7. Did a lot of running around in 12 minutes and got off 1 shot (wide). Also good on 3 of 4 passes, and won 2 of 3 duels.

HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 8. Back from his own suspension, Tommy had the team back to counter-attacking and pressing and had them put it mercilessly to the hapless Battery. Now on to a much more challenging test in Sacramento.