The People's Ratings: Columbus Crew SC vs. Philadelphia Union results

The votes are in and the team has been rated on their performance in Saturday's loss against the Union. Again, the votes tracked pretty well with the ratings. The team wide average was 5.93. A "6" at home should be a narrow win. Mabwati was the player of the match and Steve Clark, Ethan Finlay, and Hector Jimenez were the lowlights for the voters.

GK: Steve Clark (Rating: 4.78 Standard Deviation: 1.58)
The lowest rating went to Clark. It's unclear if he could have done more on the goals, but there's a growing sense of unease when the ball is at his feet. A bad touch and it's visions of MLS Cup again.

RB: Harrison Afful (6.42/1.59)
Positive marks for the attacking right back. He didn't show up on the score sheet, but he certainly impressed enough when he pushed forward.

RCB: Michael Parkhurst (5.52/1.32)
Another subpar rating from the captain, with some perhaps rating him down for his failed last ditch intervention on the Union's second.

LCB: Gaston Sauro (6.23/1.19)
The big Argentine impressed enough to get above average. He was ever present along the back.

LB: Waylon Francis (5.54/1.44)
More was expected from Francis. He sprayed his passes quite a bit and wasn't effective moving forward.

DM: Wil Trapp (5.88/1.20)
He struggled mightily with the Union pressure to play his normal game. He didn't have his long diagonals that get the offense moving, but he did circulate the ball well.

CM: Tony Tchani (5.65/1.37)
Like Trapp, he struggled with the Union mid press. His passes were more of a connecting type rather than longer more incisive moves.

RW: Ethan Finlay (4.91/1.30)
What was working isn't. Finlay is struggling in the early season. He's not finding space to break into and he's having trouble with the physical play of the league's left backs.

CAM: Federico Higuain (6.71/1.33)
He earned a positive score for his fine performance in controlling the Crew SC attack. It might have been a better performance than his week one shift against Portland.

LW: Hector Jimenez (4.79/1.48)
Fans are tiring of the Jimenez experiment on the left, especially when his replacement, Mabwati, made such bold impacts. It's hard to make an impression when your contributions don't show up in the scoresheet though.

ST: Kei Kamara (6.57/1.44)
Tallied his first goal, but he was also more involved in the offense as he held up the ball and also got into the channels.

SUB 1: Cedrick Mabwati (7.37/1.33)
Instant impact as Cedrick was the direct attacking player that the team needed. He impressed with his one on one ability and tested the Philadelphia Union defense nearly the entire time he was on the field.

SUB 2: Justin Meram (6.32/1.33)
He was seen as an improvement over the subpar Finlay. He was able to provide better linkup play than the speedy Finlay even if it didn't result in too many chances.

SUB 3: Mohammed Saeid (6.35/1.19)
The Swede settled a midfield that was struggling to connect passes. His assist off the corner was the best dead ball service of the night.

Coaching: Gregg Berhalter (5.67/1.65)
Mounting frustrations with some lineup decisions perhaps as Berhalter gets a subpar rating for the first time this season.

Officiating Crew (6.44/1.63)
No major disputed calls and the game flowed well and was fairly clean. PRO's assigned team only made the calls they had to and allowed the players to play.