Here are my player ratings. Im not good at it like Leeds is.... come on Gordon... you gotta put SOMETHING in goal. 1000 Virgins Award: Joe Cannon DIPSH!T of the Match: Pete Vagenas 10 - Joe Cannon (several saves) 8 - Mike Randolph (hustled, kept up all game, marked decent) 5 - Kevin Harmse 8 - Chris Klein (for effort and the goal) 1 - Peter Vagenas (see at top) 7 - Landon Donovan (stayed in the game, some good attempts) 4 - Troy Roberts 8 - Abel Xavier (saved our butts) 6 - Kyle Martino 2 - Carlos Pavon (totally non existent) 8 - David Beckham (several nice crosses before coming out) Substitutes 6 - Gavin Glinton 9 - Cobi Jones (changed the feel of the game. the best of our fielders) 3 - Edson Buddle (na-na-na-na-na, fumbleman!) 2 - Alan Gordon (brother of Nate Jaqua im afraid)
Klein 9 (MOTM) Cannon 8 Jones 7 Donovan 7 Randolph 7 Xavier 6 Martino 5 Harmse 5 Beckham 5 Buddle 5 Pavon 4 Roberts 3 Gordon 1 Vagenas 0 (assuming negative ratings are not allowed) Glinton (not enough time to rate)
No Pants Gordon-- great saves. fierce tenacity. will to win. Short Pants Beckham-- had he not left injured, the number of FKs given to Galaxy could have propelled them to a win. Cobi-- changed the match around. spark some good Galaxy attacks Capri Pants Donovan-- It's annoying when basketball players have free throw rituals and shoot 70% (Jason Kidd). It's more annoying when footballers have PK rituals and miss. Klein-- great goal. You got lucky. It's a clear day now. Come off cloud 9 before you fall. Xavi-- great defense. Reminded me of your good days at Boro. Absolute Pants Vagenas-- everyone is blaming you. Google Donnie Moore, 1986 Angels. Buddle-- ever heard of lobbing the ball over the goalie?
Only saw last half hour after I got home from my workout. However, here's my impression: Cannon (MOTM) - 9 Cobi played above and beyond what should be expected of him at this age. He gets the seven. Donovan was really disappointing, doing the kissy kiss thing and then missing the penal. That was a bummer. He scores a five. And that's all I saw.
I thought it would be unfair to rate the game, as I was really tired and dozing off, but I have seen most of the bits I was asleep for: CANNON: 8 My man of the match. Superb saves. They say that for every pot of gold gained you get a bag of shite, well if Gray is the bag of shite..... RANDOLPH: 7 Another good performance from such an inexperienced player. He is still suspect defensively but boy does he work hard to compensate for it. Superb mazy runs, and if we had another left winger in his mould we would be a real force. ROBERTS: 5 Tries but just doesn't make the grade. KLEIN: 7.5 Superbly taken goal, on another day it would be the winner. It doesn't quite make up for some of his displays this season, so I'm still a sceptic. XAVIER: 7 Solid generally. Couple of nailbiters but leads the line very well. BECKHAM 6 Sorry guys, but he didn't accomplish a great deal on the field, as he was still unfit to be playing. One or two half decent crosses aside. VAGENAS: 4 Oh deary me. Can't put a sentance together that wouldn't get me a red card to describe this guy. Why is this player even considered to be good enough to be paid to play football? His penalty was piss-poor. Tries hard, but you can't be a good player by just trying. HARMSE: 6 Needs to really stand up for himself more. One for next season still imo. DONOVAN:7 Can't fault his attitude and application, but you'd like him to take his chances a little better. MARTINO: 6 Usually is either total shite or excellent. Found a reasonably happy medium in this one. Again I wouldn't be upset if he was here next season. PAVON: 4 If there was ever a game to show his true ability this was it. Lethargic, lazy, no first touch, and just very, very poor. Needs replacing. SUBS: GORDON: 4 Managed to accomplish as much as we would have done if we had sent Beckham back out on crutches. Ball-achingly bad. I agree with whoever said Jaqua 2. COBI: 6.5 Did well coming on. BUDDLE: 6 Did little coming on late. Missed a sitter as well. GLINTON:- Not on long enough. TACTICS: 7 Nearly paid off, we absorbed a great deal of pressure, with the wide men relied upon to get us forward, but it didn't work, and I was disappointed that there was seemingly little fight left in the team in extra time. Pachuca aren't all that impressive imo, and I think given a fully fit squad we would have beaten them. FANS:9 Puzzled by the decision to limit numbers, but I was impressed by those who were there. Great atmosphere.
I'm going to try my hand at player ratings, hopefully I won't fail as bad as Alexi Lalas has as a GM Mauricio Cienfuegos Award(MVP): Joe Cannon Octavio Zambrano Award(Most Overlooked Player): Cobi Jones Alexi Lalas Award(LVP): Pete Vagenas Nate Jaqua Award(No explanation needed): Tie: Carlos Pavon't, Alan Gordon't, Edson't Buddle. 'Smokin' Joe Cannon: 9. Incredible Saves, kept the team in it until the final whistle. I woulda given him the last penalty and LD the first instead. Mike Randolph: 7. Nice speed, defended well, also kept this team in it until the end, great prospect. Roberts of Troy: 6. Didn't see too much of him, but I believe he did stop a goal off the line, though it may have been Randolph. "Able" Xavier: 8. Saved this team numerous times, the only centerback in the game that could clear the ball and constantly win tackles. Shame about the PK. Chris Klein: 8. Some decent crosses along the right, pushed down the right numerous times, right spot at the right time for the goal, though that finish was nice. Shows his versatility. Start him up top if you have to. That British guy, I can't remember his name. The one with the hair: 7. I'll give him a 7 for the effort, though, he's gotta be less tentative during some tackles. If you don't go in 100% you'll get injured. That being said, he was already injured so you can't blame him. Vags: -3.14... He gets negative Pi as his score, as negative Pi goes on forever. He had a few good passes(Blasphemy!) but an own goal and a missed PK to boot. Not his night. When has it ever been? Maybe if we start him up top and say we're defending the goal with the opponent's keeper, he'll score 30goals this season and have us make the playoffs, all while thinking he's passing back. LandyCakes: 7. Shame he missed the PK after his ritual. At least now he'll be able to score from the run of play while missing every penalty he'll ever take again, right? But had a good night, constantly ran at players, but never quite wanted to break through into the box, instead layed it off. Kevin (Will Cause Harm) Harmse: 6. Didn't see anything special from him. The beard made him look like Ned Grabavoy with curly hair on the camera. If only he could play like that, even though its not his game. Still, nothing bad, nothing special. Kyle (Italian) Martino: 5. So like, when'd we get an Italian Nat on the team all of a sudden? Cause that's what Martino looked like, taking a page from Filipo Inzaghi and flailing everywhere. At least Inzaghi knows how to dive...my goodness. Martino needs to take people on and take shots more. Carlos Pavon't: 3. He played? I didn't see him until he got subbed out. Cobi (Mr. Galaxy) Jones: 9. As soon as he came on, the team started to lift itself. Cobi just knows how to make things work for LA, he's played here his entire MLS career after all. Somebody give him prosthetic heels and bring him back for next season. Alan Gordon't: 3. Missed a beautiful pass from Cobi by heading the ball right into that Pirate's arms. Somebody teach Gordon't to be a Ninja so he can start beating Pirates at things. Shame how this guy can make such good runs, get in good positions, but cannot finish well enough most of the time. He's like Peter Crouch without the talent. Edson't Buddle: 3. Had a great breakaway in the second half, only to run slower then the defender, not see Cobi, and shank the shot. We gave up Tyrone for this? Gavin Glinton: Wait, he was subbed on? ...Really? I didn't see him do anything, so no number. Well, there's my ratings. I rate them as worse then Cannon but way way way way better then Pete. So, I give myself the Eric Wynalda Award, because I like hearing myself talk.