Player Ratings: Tampa Bay Rowdies 0-2 Birmingham Legion

Our kid is better than their kid

Tommy Soehn didn’t change much from the Hartford game, and the end result was more or less the same, and even rather better. Tyler Pasher had to sit this one out, though, and the big question mark now is how long will MVO have to sit out?

GK: MATT VAN OEKEL/TREVOR SPANGENBERG – 8. I wouldn’t normally split a position like this, but we have an unusual case here. You don’t often lose your starting goalkeeper early. In any event, neither shotstopper had to work very hard. Can you call them shotstoppers though when there were no shots to stop? However, Trevor gets bonus points for the incredible hockey assist.

LB: GABRIEL ALVES – 6.5. Gabriel followed up his goalscoring performance with a pretty average one. His passing was very poor: he completed just 12 of an attempted 26. He was largely uninvolved in the attack, and registered 3 tackles and 2 interceptions, also winning 76 of 11 duels. A late yellow card didn’t help much.

CB: PHANUEL KAVITA – 6.5. Phanny got a yellow for a very professional foul stopping a counterattack, but he had to do it because he was being badly outpaced. His passing was decent, at 85.2% accuracy on 27 passes, but he lost a surprising 6 of 7 duels. Nothing in attack; 1 tackle and 2 clearances on defense.

CB: ALEX CROGNALE – 7. A solid game from Alex, and no card. He connected on 28 of 39 passes, but was not involved much in the attack. Only 4 duels, but he won 3 of them. 6 clearances and 3 interceptions snuffed out much of Tampa’s attack.

RB: COLLIN SMITH – 6.5. Collin’s outing rather mirrored that of his left side counterpart. Also low passing numbers: 59.3% of 27 tries. He did have a shot on target and put in 2 crosses. He won 9 of 15 duels and had 2 clearances and 2 interceptions. Also picked up a yellow card.

LDM: ANDERSON ASIEDU – 8. This new defensive midfield paring is fun to watch and is working magnificently so far. Ando completed 79.3% of 29 passes. NO shots for once, but he did create 2 chances and was even offside once. He won 6 of 10 duels (of course) and logged 4 tackles and 1 clearance.

RDM: MATTHEW CORCORAN – 8. Tampa’s Tate Johnson may have been surprised not to be the youngest player on the pitch, and he was outplayed by his junior. Matthew is looking way older than 17 years, 1 month and 12 days. He assisted on the game-clincher, had a shot on target himself (both counting as scoring chances), and was a fairly hefty 81.3% accurate on 32 passing attempts. He lost 8 of 14 duels, but more than made up for that with 5 tackles and 1 interception.

LAM: JUAN AGUDELO – 7.5. Is he permanently a left winger now? That’s 3 straight games at that position. A good showing, too. 2 shots, 1 on target and 1 blocked. No crosses, so that’s one area he needs to work on. 81.3% accuracy rate on 16 passes (good for an attacking player). He added 3 tackles, 1 block and 1 interception on defense, but was also shown the yellow card late.

CAM: ENZO MARTINEZ – 7. The Legion didn’t avoid the middle of the park as at Hartford, but they are playing wider than in the past and so went around Enzo a bit. He finished 14 of 22 passes and had 1 shot on frame and 1 off. Otherwise he wasn’t too busy.

RAM: PROSPER KASIM – 8. Prosper played 67 minutes and put up just 1 shot off target, but he did send in 4 crosses. Only 1 found a target, but with the perfect result and at a great time in the game to boot. And it was in the air. His passing was 76.2% on 21 tries, not bad at all.

FWD: NECO BRETT – 8. Neco is scoring at a rate of 1.32 goals per 90 and is tied for second in the league. What else can you ask for from your striker? Man of the Match was a tough choice this week as it was very much a team performance, but Neco edges out Matthew for the honors.

SUB: GRAYSON DUPONT – 7. Grayson came on for a fairly long 23 official minutes as a slightly more defensive replacement for Prosper in his first outing of the season. Good on 5 of 6 passes, won 2 of 5 duels, 1 tackle. Not overly taxing.

SUB: MOSES MENSAH – 7. Moses replaced Matthew in the 84th minute to solidify the defense and close the game out. 1 pass (it was good) and 1 tackle. Job done.

SUB: DIBA NWEGBO – 7. Came on with 5 minutes left to give Neco a slightly early rest and of course had very little to do at that point.

HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 8. So last week Tommy started out with the 4-2-3-1nad then messed around with it big time. This week, he stuck with it more or less all game. Keeping them guessing, I suppose.

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