Player Ratings: Birmingham Legion 2-1 Indy Eleven

Seems like forever, but it’s great to be back in the win column, isn’t it? This was an all-round good performance by the Legion, a couple of errors aside.

GK: MATT VAN OEKEL – 7. Matt made 3 saves in the game, including a key early stop that could have changed the game entirely. The one goal was not his fault at all. 73.7% passing accuracy, which is really good for him.

LB: GABRIEL ALVES –6.5. A not especially great game for Gabriel, stats-wise. He was the more attacking of the two fullbacks, but the dangerous play came mostly from the wingers. 82.6% accurate on 23 passes, but both his crossing attempts failed. Defensively, he won 1 of 3 duels and made just 1 clearance. Picked up a yellow as well.

CB: PHANUEL KAVITA – 8. Phanny made 37 of 39 passes, but was uninvolved in the attack. Not his job, which is to fill the middle of the pitch and force the game around him. 2 of 3 duels, 1 tackle,  6 clearances, 1 interception.

CB: ALEX CROGNALE – 8.5. A total rock in this game. 73.6% completion rate on a whopping 53 passes and 1 shot off target. Defensively, though: he won 11 of 13 duels, made 4 tackles, 4 clearances and 2 interceptions. That’s a day’s work. Spoiled it a tad with a yellow card.

RB: COLLIN SMITH – 7. Held in defense for a lot of the game, even so Collin racked up 45 passes, connecting on 37 of them. He also made 3 crosses, finding his target on one of those, and creating 1 scoring chance. 5 for 10 in duels and just 1 tackle.

LDM: ANDERSON ASIEDU – 7.5. Ando wouldn’t be Ando without a yellow card and a skied shot, so that’s what he did. He also completed 88.6% of 35 passes, made 1 unsuccessful cross and got the assist on Diba’s opening goal. 4 of 6 in duels, 2 tackles and 1 interception. That was enough to be named to the bench for the USL Team of the Week.

RDM: MIKEY LOPEZ – 7. Mikey played just 30 minutes before being forced out of the game, but was pretty good in that time. 8 for 12 in passing, 2of 4 in duels, 1 interception. Let’s hope he’s not badly hurt.

LAM: PROSPER KASIM – 8. Prosper played just the first half, but was fairly busy in that time. 8 of 10 in passing, 1 shot off frame and 1 blocked. 2 unsuccessful crosses, but that all counted for 2 chances created. Also 1 of 2 in duels, as well as 1 block of his own and 1 interception.

CAM: ENZO MARTINEZ – 8. Scoring the game-winner is always going to get you a good grade (he was probably a tad offside though. Nice to get a decision in our favor for once). He had 1 other shot off target and was 75.9% accurate on 29 passes. Pretty much controlled the entire game, which is what a CAM is supposed to do.

RAM: TYLER PASHER – 9. Tyler gets our Man of the Match award this time around. He was a nightmare for the Indy defense to deal with all evening. He created 3 scoring chances, by way of 1 shot on target, 1 off target, 2 blocked and 2 successful crosses. If Prosper had stayed in the game, we would likely have seen him on the left, but he did it all from the right.

FWD: JUAN AGUDELO – 8. Juan put a chip shot just over the crossbar and knew he should have scored. That was about the only real mistake he made though. 90.3% accuracy rate on 31 passes is huge for a striker, but he also had 3 shots in the game (1 on target) for 3 scoring chances.

SUB: MATTHEW CORCORAN – 7. Matthew really should have been hit with an own goal that was instead credited to Sebastian Guenzatti, but he made up for it with the cheeky hockey assist on Enzo’s game-winner. In a long sub appearance for Mikey Lopez he also went 84.2% on 38 passes, created 2 scoring chances and was solid in defense.

SUB: DIBA NWEGBO – 8. In 45 minutes he got his first league goal and had 3 other shots (2 off target, 1 blocked). Generally disregarded by the Indy defense; a big mistake. Amazingly, he attempted only 7 passes, finishing 5 of those, but then the attack largely went through Tyler.

SUB: NECO BRETT – 7. Great to see hm back in playing form, even if just for 15 official minutes. But that was enough for the assist on the game-winning goal. That’ll do nicely, thank you.

SUB: MOSES MENSAH – N/A. Brought on for late clean-up duty, Moses didn’t have much to do..

HC: TOMMY SOEHN – 7. He played a 4-2-3-1 again, which is not my favorite, but hey, it worked out just fine and the Legion is back on the winning track.