TFC-SSFC Player Ratings

[Lucky Strike]

Before I submit to my post-loss ritual of avoiding the board for 12 hrs following a loss, I give you my player ratings:

Sutton (6) - Exposed twice and couldn't save us; good on him to recognize that his kicks weren't getting anywhere against the wind so he resorted to throwing the ball.
Wynne (5) - Got forward a few times and caused trouble but was caught out of position on the 2nd goal, taking part of the blame for leaving Zakuani wide open. Yes, he was trying to help clear the ball, but that's how it happened...
Serioux (5) - Good in the air, still a tough customer but failing to check the Ljungberg run cost us the first goal.
Brennan (5.5) - Got forward as much as possible to create offense but was generally unspectacular. He got caught on the wrong side of a Seattle player once or twice. Booked.
Ricketts (3) - Looked completely predictable, like a kid watching "Finding Nemo" for the hundreth time. He did look to have done enough to win us a penalty, but it shockingly went begging thanks to the referee. Also didn't clear the ball in time leading to the second goal. Subbed.
Robinson (5.5) - Invisible in the first half and did the best he could in the second. Unfortunately, it didn't amount to anything.
Guevara (6.5) - Gave it his all but ultimately couldn't produce anything in the crowded midfield.
DeRosario (6.5) - Looked more dangerous than any other, perhaps on equal footing with Guevara and he'll be disappointed that he couldn't provide a spark despite his hard work.
Barrett (5) - Looked better than in Columbus, that's for sure but couldn't generate a real threat. Still though, I thought he had some good touches in trying to link with Vitti. Subbed.
Vitti (6.5) - A good run at the start and was generally Vitti-esque. What does that mean? Good movement, worked hard, caused some worries for the opposition and came back to pick up the ball from time to time when needed. Subbed.

Cronin (6) - More and more impressed with this kid. If he and Ricketts maintain their current form, he should be able to unseat RR10 as a starter in the near future.
Dichio (6) - TFC just isn't the same without him on the pitch. Very strong and held up the play well, generally spraying the ball with effectiveness.
Smith (NR) - I don't give out a rating for anyone who played less than 10 minutes, but didn't really do anything. Yes, he only had 6 minutes but at one point, I caught him standing still and he had to be told by Brennan (I believe) to move or do something to get open as Brennan was busy warding off two other players.

Carver (8.5) - Put out probably the best available team, minus Cronin instead of Ricketts but I say this in hindsight only. Made intelligent substitutions at appropriate times and you could see tactics in his formations moving from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3.

Referee (2) - Shocking. Am I being overly hard because we lost? Maybe, but Geiger got so many calls wrong, I lost track. No penalty given as Ricketts was fouled, got two corner kicks wrong (one for TFC and one for Seattle), he got his carding all wrong (for instance he probably should have booked DeRosario for pushing a player on two separate occasions, fouls were given when they shouldn't have been (the Dichio "foul" comes to mind), and the whistle went unheard when fouls should have been given. He even got throw-ins incorrect and allowed Seattle players to shove him! This was when the Seattle players were telling Geiger that that was twice now that DeRosario shoved one of their players, and one Seattle player has his two fingers up (to make his point about DeRo) and shoved them right in the referee chest and that pretty hard. He should be sent back to referee school. Just brutal.

TFC MOTM - I probably have to give it to DeRosario though Guevara and Dichio aren't too far behind. DeRo just played so hard with a passion and managed to do decently given the team's poor performance.

Most impressed by opposition's - Ljungberg. Scored a goal and was the engine of the Seattle team. Constantly looked a threat.

[StandUpIfYouHateChelsea]

id say vitti a 7 , id give the ref a -5 , vitti had no protection , THIS LEAGUE IS SHIT FOR IT . Refs need to sort the shit out , soon . Vitti made runs , opened the game , Heck he even scored! . Oh wait of course i forgot that Dichio fould the "ghost" who plays for seattle...... How dumb of me...

[tfctillidie]

Id' probably give Barrett a 3.5 or a 4

[LucaGol]

Your ratings are way too generous.

[Fushida]

I would peg Robbo down a bit. He wasn't impressive at all to be honest.. committed too easily in a few situations from where I was standing and got beat a few times.

Cronin did well too I think, a little slow on the ball but he has the right ideas most of the time. Smith is shit. I can't believe this guy is still ahead of Ibbe but he's gotta stop getting minutes.. Didn't do shit coming on. Has zero movement off the ball, no chasing after balls at all. I mean ffs you just got on, and you stay up further ahead than anyone else on the team without moving? And yea the time whe Jimmy had it and Smith just STOOD THERE for like 5 seconds.. WTF?

Ricketts was bad, but not the worst.. this is better than his first two games I'd wager. He actually cut in quite well today a few times, but too invisible the rest. 2nd goal you can't blame him only, the defense was just shit.

[King Jeff]

I thought Dichio was our best player today. It wasn't until he came into the game that we actually looked dangerous. Two weeks in a row now.

Ricketts was rubbish, although the team did a pretty good job not passing to him.

[TheWolf]

Your ratings are way too generous.

i totally agree
X2

everyone was really off their game big time....

[rocker]

De Rosario had his worst game with TFC.

[Lucky Strike]

Feel free to do your own write-ups, I'd like to see what you guys think as well!

[DavydMT]

Very good write up, i was very disappointed with Serioux, made number of big mistakes, poor positioning and ball distribution. I think ref should be given a passing grade, he made few small mistakes (i don't think that was a penalty) but overall i don't think Toronto lost because of his decisions. Once again we can see that USL teams are very good and we should get more of them in MLS. Can't wait until 2011, both Vancouver and Portland should improve quality of football in this league.

[FCBarcelona]

Lucky,
yoor to nice with yoor numbers,
the ref i totally agree, MLS refs are very poor and MLS have no desire to improve the these guys and gals, as for today ref he made sure Seattle got all the calls , cos Seattle is AMERICAN the ref is AMERICAN.


AS FOR Brennan, Harmse's Wynne and Serioux(sp) there was more holes there than in swiss cheese, these four were terrable.

Mr Carver got oot coached bye a very very good coach in Sigi, Carver is not a good bench coach at all.

[Oblio2]

Sutton (6) -
Wynne (5) -
Serioux (6)
Brennan (5) -
Ricketts (3)
Robinson (5)
Guevara (5)
DeRosario (6)
Barrett (5) \
Vitti (4)

Cronin (6)
Dichio (6)
Smith (NR)
Carver (6) -
Referee (2) -
Most impressed by opposition's - Ljungberg-sucks cock

[Toronto_Bhoy]

There wasn't a TFC performance worth rating.

Poor all around.

[Roogsy]

Referee (2) - Shocking. Am I being overly hard because we lost? Maybe, but Geiger got so many calls wrong, I lost track. No penalty given as Ricketts was fouled, got two corner kicks wrong (one for TFC and one for Seattle), he got his carding all wrong (for instance he probably should have booked DeRosario for pushing a player on two separate occasions, fouls were given when they shouldn't have been (the Dichio "foul" comes to mind), and the whistle went unheard when fouls should have been given. He even got throw-ins incorrect and allowed Seattle players to shove him! This was when the Seattle players were telling Geiger that that was twice now that DeRosario shoved one of their players, and one Seattle player has his two fingers up (to make his point about DeRo) and shoved them right in the referee chest and that pretty hard. He should be sent back to referee school. Just brutal.

I hate the fact that we are starting out the year the same as we left it, but it's obvious (AGAIN!) that refereeing is going to be an issue. When I got home, I rewatched the game and it was a disgrace. Amatuer would have been an improvement from this idiot.

[Cristiano14]

Carver did the best he could with the guys he had. He had good tactics and good substitutions, Mo seriously needs to bring in another CB immediately and maybe even a winger to replace ricketts or cronin can replace him. If ricketts doesn't get back into some sort of form after the Dallas game then we really need to look for another option. AWFUL refereeing and really bad conditions. I know your not supposed to blame losses on referees, but this one you almost can. We did play like shit though. And as hard as it is to admit seattle is a very good team and sigi is an excellent coach in this league

[Oblio2]

Thats great but a CB wont make Ricketts better, or Vitti score.....

[Toronto_Bhoy]

I hate the fact that we are starting out the year the same as we left it, but it's obvious (AGAIN!) that refereeing is going to be an issue. When I got home, I rewatched the game and it was a disgrace. Amatuer would have been an improvement from this idiot.

True Roogsy, but its an issue for everyone.

Officiating is the weak link of this league but that had little to do with today's outcome...it ranked up (or is that down) there with TFC's perofrmance...poor.

[Roogsy]

Yes but as far as I could tell...there were no calls that were dropped against Seattle that cost them goals. There was at least one goal called back that shouldn't have been. And maybe more. Did that happen to Seattle? I don't think so.

[druid]

I thought Guevara was a total passenger in the first half. Offered nothing offensively or defensively. Completely unsuited to playing central mid in a 4-4-2 diamond. Lacks the guts, commitment, and engine for it although he may be our most technically talented footballer.

I would have given Carver 3 or 4 for that game. Seattle had prepared well and were laid out defensively to isolate our midfielders from each other. They succeeded admirably. Carver was unable to counter and required a change of formation to right the ship.

[Nuvinho]

That is the same ref as last year vs. Dallas.........remember the Guevara/Richetti red card.

[eustacchio]

I hate the fact that we are starting out the year the same as we left it, but it's obvious (AGAIN!) that refereeing is going to be an issue. When I got home, I rewatched the game and it was a disgrace. Amatuer would have been an improvement from this idiot.

Every time the whistle blew, I wondered aloud, "What's this call going to be?" I honestly didn't know, and whatever I thought it was going to be, it was usually the opposite.

[TERSIGNI]

Yes the ref was bad, but our players were worse. Seattle had some nifty give and goes...when did we see that? The best play of the game for us was the Brennan cross and right behind that the play to Vitti. We were not creative and until late in the second half when Danny got in, we were at risk of not having one shot on goal. Even if the ref was adequate, we still would not have come away feeling good about our effort. The pre-game hype made have led to some nervousness among our player and probably complacency that our crowd was going to carry our team and unsettle the Carey boys. Did not happen. Good news is that we won't likely have gale force winds to blame next week.

[djking2]

Carver did the best he could with the guys he had. He had good tactics and good substitutions, Mo seriously needs to bring in another CB immediately and maybe even a winger to replace ricketts or cronin can replace him. If ricketts doesn't get back into some sort of form after the Dallas game then we really need to look for another option. AWFUL refereeing and really bad conditions. I know your not supposed to blame losses on referees, but this one you almost can. We did play like shit though. And as hard as it is to admit seattle is a very good team and sigi is an excellent coach in this league

Carver pulled Vitti who in my opinion was the only guy at the time looking like he might score for Smith who looked like an ass out there. Not my idea of a good sub.

If Ricketts starts next week Carver will look like Smith.

[Detroit_TFC]

The ref was diabolical but the best ref in MLS wouldn't have helped us that much. The game would have been just a little less irritating.

DeRo seemed invisible to me, I can't think of any significant play he made.

Vitti is getting better, I hope that continues. I saw some individual efforts that weren't too bad, but our play as a unified, communicating team, miserable.

[felipe]

upon reflection, what really irritated me the most about yesterdays game, (apart from the endless long-balls; which to be fair did create chances);

It was the one touch passing down the sideline that seattle did to create their second goal. One of those players should have been tackled up into row G around midfield, that was downright embarassing to be schooled like that. It was a comedy of errors that led to that goal. Harmse actually did ok, he blocked the initial pass and stayed on his feet - which is a huge achievment for him - but unluckily the ball fell right back into the attackers path. But I don't know what Ricketts was thinking...fine, shield it, but then put your foot thru the ball - don't sit and watch it crawl across your own box. But it all started up the sideline, and one of those puke green shirts should have been deposited into the stands at that point.

actually, intensity was lacking all game from everyone; and DeRo was guilty of some poor decisions - trying to make things happen I can only suppose, intereseting decisions on something as basic as playing it back - he would bypass the obvious choise and play it square across the obvious choice instead, and take all day to make that decision - putting needless pressure on the D.

Serioux too made some interesting decisions too...at one point he apparently decided he was Beckenbaur and strode up the pitch with the ball, promptly lost the plot and had the ball taken right off his feet. Huge brain cramp on the first goal, and made two big errors on the same play in the second half and was lucky not to cause a third goal. But he was strong and effective in the tackle most of the time. He epitimises our D for me, mostly very good - if unimaginative - , but guilty of massive brain cramps at disapointingly regular intervals. I don't think our central D looks any worse than Seattle's to be honest - on another day, we would have had three goals easy off of their own poor marking.

I still think we'll haev a very good year though. Its just tremendously disapointing to have a home opener as flat as that. Going into the match, I was half expecting thrity pass moves without Seattle even touching the ball, culminating with Barrett putting the ball into the net from his backside. Next week, then.

[Steve]

Carver pulled Vitti who in my opinion was the only guy at the time looking like he might score for Smith who looked like an ass out there. Not my idea of a good sub.

If Ricketts starts next week Carver will look like Smith.

My only question with the Vitti sub is match fitness. If Vitti isn't fully match fit yet, that might explain the late sub.

[djking2]

You may be right but it really wasn't looking that way to me. Smith didn't look like he knew there was a game on.

[EGP]

Check out Jack D on notable tv

http://www.notable.tv/tfc.php

[jloome]

Sutton - 5
Wynne - 4 (he should've been covering Zakuani's side when that rebound came out)
Serioux - 3
Harmse - 4
Robbo - 4
Guevara - 4
Ricketts - 3
Derosario - 5
Barrett - 4
Vitti - 6
Cronin - 5
Smith( NR)
Dichio - 6

[jloome]

And anyone who think they deserved better plays too much Football Manager. A "6.0" is considered an average-to-good rating by the Brit press. A 7.0 is better than average. An 8.0 is outstanding, a 9.0 is one of the best of the year, a 10.0 is "that game you talk about for years where Robbie Fowler scored 5".