NYCFC 3-1 Atlanta United: Staff Player Ratings

As requested by you the readers, here for the first time are the official, incontrovertible, absolutely accurate Dirty South Soccer writer player ratings. Unfortunately for our first ratings, we have largely dismal performances all around to evaluate.

GK: Alec Kann – 5. Made four saves on the day and was not to blame for any of the three goals.

RB: Tyrone Mears – 4.5. Possibly the top performer on the back line yesterday if not for the yellow card. Cleared a ball off the line seconds into the second half to help keep the scoreline from getting totally disastrous. Gets a half point for getting away with a foot over the line on the throw-in that led to Carmona’s goal.

CB: Michael Parkhurst – 3. Another performance to forget for Parky. Picked up a yellow card and completely gave up on Villa for the first goal of the game.

CB: Leandro Gonzalez Pirez – 4. Didn’t really do much this time around. Was unable to get forward as much as we have seen him do in recent games.

LB: Greg Garza – 4. Usually the more aggressive of the two outside backs, Garza failed to generate much on offense and was late covering Wallace for the second goal.

CM: Jeff Larentowicz – 4. Moderately solid in the middle, but picked up a silly yellow card.

CM: Carlos Carmona – 5.5. Man of the Match. Usually relatively invisible, Carmona’s name got called a lot today. The superb strike for his first MLS goal earns him MOTM honors, but he did get left behind on the final goal by Moralez. 5 on defense, 6 on offense, split the difference.

CAM: Julian Gressel – 3. Still struggling. Earned a yellow card for a late challenge that in some of ATLUTD’s previous games might have drawn a red. Taken off after 57 minutes; a relatively early substitution by Martino standards, which says a lot in itself.

RW: Tito Villalba – 4. Had one good shot on goal that just went wide; otherwise didn’t do much.

FWD: Kenwyne Jones – 3. Absolutely invisible all game and showing his ineffectiveness in Martino’s system more and more. The one time he did get good service he produced a lame header that was easily controlled by Johnson.

LW: Miguel Almiron – 4. Had the same kinds of problems as he did against DC United. Couldn’t find space and was unable to generate distribution forward.

SUB: Chris McCann – 4. Replaced Gressel early but couldn’t do much. Both of NYCFC’s second half scores were within four minutes of him coming on, putting him in an impossible position.

SUB: Brandon Vazquez – Not rated. Came on too late and was given too few opportunities to make a difference.

Univision English-language Commentators – 0. Man, were they awful.

Andrew Carleton – 7. Yes, Carleton did play on Sunday, but for the USMNT U-17s in the essentially meaningless CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying final game against Mexico. He opened the scoring with another great strike, although the US eventually lost the game on kicks from the mark.