I was bored and I decided to do an analysis of everyone’s player ratings. Keep note that I included people who did full ratings. There were 28 sets of ratings that I included. Basically I took the average for each player as well as their highest and lowest scores. Before I start I would like to give an award to two posters. NOVASTAR400 and SoccerTom, your ratings are extremely unintelligent and show no understanding of the game, NOVA gave every single midfielder a 2 and TOM gave Altidore a 4.5, which would have been a 3 if he hadn’t scored the goal. I only did starters. High Low Average Howard- 9 5.5 7.42 The general consensus was that Howard played a very solid game and that neither of the goals were his fault. Some said he made world-class saves. This is incorrect, all of the saves that he made he should have made. A world class save would have been somehow saving one of the two Mexican goals. It was also noted of the communication problems he had with his defenders and walls. Needs to show more composure. Corrales- 5.5 Null 3.17 Consensus was that he played a very poor game. Didn’t have the pace to defend and resorted to fouling in dangerous areas. I don’t actually know, but I would not be surprised if both of the goals were direct result of his fouls. He was not dangerous getting forward. Hopefully he will never put on a NATS jersey ever again. Shooter6065 said, “diabolical.” That pretty much sums his play up. Boca- 7 4 5.8 Most people agreed that he played a solid game. He cleaned up well and made several key tackles. Some argued that he was still rusty and that his distribution was very poor. He would have looked better if he had not had to cover for others the entire game. Worked hard. Gooch- 8 5 6.8 Consensus was that he played an excellent game. The best he has played for the NATS since before the World Cup if not ever. Excellent goal. Was strong in the air and was solid tackling. Did not lose his head and refrained from making dumb fouls. Used his large frame well. Moor- 5.5 1 3.5 Where to start… He was abused down the side. Worst free kick marking seen in awhile. Some said the worst performance by a USNAT they had ever seen. Saving grace was the cross he played in, if that doesn’t happen I suspect his rating is much lower than Corrales’s. Convey- 5.5 2 3.95 Beaz, we hope you heal well. Because if you don’t you could end up like Convey. Most agreed that he was invisible/awful yesterday. His speed was gone and he didn’t track on defense, which didn’t help the already overmatched Corrales. Did not take defenders on, was not an offensive threat and was a defensive liability. Donovan- 7 2 5.8 People said that this was a decent game for Donovan. He had that twenty-minute stretch where he dominated the entire game and was pretty absent for the rest. He abused Salicido. The two major reasons he faded out of the game were poor service from the mids and defense, and playing out wide when he should have been playing in the middle. Solid game. Bradley- 6.5 2 4.92 Did not play particularly well for the NATS. Certainly not up to his club form. Worked hard on the defensive end and did well disrupting the Mexican attack. Struggled from a passing standpoint. Many BS posters would have liked to see him in a more attacking position. Pairing of him and Clark was not good. Clark- 6.25 2 4.92 While I thought that Clark and Bradley played similarly I was surprised to find that BS posters decided that they were exactly as good as each other. Passing was better then Bradley’s, work ethic and disrupting slightly worse. Hasn’t played in awhile and looked rusty. Dempsey- 7 2 6.15 Worked hard in the first half and was dangerous with the ball at his feet. He faded in the second half. The goal that he scored, although a hair offside, was brilliant. Just wondered what a fresh Demps would have looked liked. Apparent that forward is not his true position. Altidore- 8 4 6.76 Dangerous in the air and a great first goal. Clinical finish, it is easy to see the talent that he has, although you can also see that he needs a little more work. Gave the Mexico defense fits. Should be penciled in as the #1 forward for the next decade. Some did not like his first touch and his passing. Feilhaber- Most wondered why he did not get more time. Many think he should start. Possession immediately got better once he was inserted on to the pitch. Lewis-Still old, an upgrade over Convey…..That’s not saying much. Adu- Decent work rate, struggled to find his stride until the very end. Liked the way he took players on. Should stay in the super sub mode for a little more time. Edu- Not enough time. That’s all! Comments, questions?
I thought about doing a combined ratings thread where the BS ratings were compared with Sam's Army and whatever journalists come out with them. Have we seen any player-by-player ratings from the press?
Wow. Great job with both the analysis and the summarization. Interesting idea too. Would love to see this kind of thing in the future.
Steve Davis ratings here: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=505836&root=us&cc=5901 Soccer America seems to have them here: http://socceramerica.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=25467 But it's subscriber-only. When we get a few maybe we'll compare.
Well, due to the subjective nature of this exercise (and it should be "intelligent subjectivity" as every purely objective system I've ever seen is skewed), you're always going to find someone rating some player a 2 where another poster rated the same player a 9.
Mike Woitalla at SoccerAmerica gave fairly representative if a little tight on the bell curve ratings. Very similar to Davis. I hate the fact that no one is willing to use the whole scale. When's the last time one of these guys gave someone a 2 or a 3? In what universe did Corrales play at the same level as Bradley (4)?
Yeah, for whatever reason I have always tended to bias ratings upward, to where you basically never see 1 or 2, and 5 ends up being slightly below average.
"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Midfielder Jeremiah White (81st minute for Donovan) -- 5: His fresh legs made him a threat, but by this time he entered, the U.S. was just trying to preserve a tie." Interesting... [/FONT]
The Sams Army ratings aren't too far off from the summary posted at the outset of this thread. Sams Army seems to think we played a 4-5-2 with Bobby Convey occupying two spots. Not sure if having an extra Convey on the field would have helped or hurt the team...