Nashville SC picked up a vital point on the road to keep their strong vice grip on 2nd place in the MLS Eastern Conference standings with a 0-0 draw against D.C. United Saturday.
Below are our player ratings.
Each member of the Speedway Soccer crew gives each player that saw the pitch a rating based on their match performance. Below is a quick guideline for our evaluation process.
- A rating of 6 denotes an average performance. Each player starts out with a 6 and their performance either adds or subtracts from that rating.
- Scores are determined after re-watching the match and looking at the stats, and are the averaged total of each Speedway member’s ratings.
Joe Willis – 8: Willis had some crucial stops down the stretch as D.C. pushed for a winner. His five saves, four of which were inside the box, give him a league-leading 13th clean sheet.
Dave Romney – 7.3: Completed 37 accurate passes with an 82% passing accuracy, and had four successful recoveries.
Walker Zimmerman – 7: Zimmerman returned from international duty and was immediately slotted back into his normal central role. Although he had six clearances, he lost more duels than he won.
Jack Maher – 7.3: Had a blocked shot that might’ve been D.C.’s lone goal had he not put his body in front of it.
Eric Miller – 7: Had zero crosses on his end, but did win 80% of his duels on the flanks and had seven recoveries.
Taylor Washington – 6.8: Washington, however, was much more active on the offensive side with his crossing, as he had three, one of which was accurate, and did help create one of Nashville’s chances.
Dax McCarty – 7.5: Not only did McCarty complete the most successful dribbles, but he also won 56% of his duels.
Brian Anunga – 7.8: Completed 87% of his passes, with 22 of those passes coming in the opposition’s half.
Hany Mukhtar – 6.3: A rough go for Mukhtar, as he was dispossessed by the D.C. defense more than any other Nashville attacker and only had two shots.
Luke Haakenson – 5.5: Haakenson came back into the starting 11 in place of Leal, but was barely involved in the attack, with 17 touches and 11 passes registered to his name.
CJ Sapong – 5.8: Sapong also had a tough time on the night. His passing accuracy was at 44% and lost 10 duels.
SUBS
Alex Muyl – 6.8: Muyl offered some decent service after his introduction, with nine accurate passes in the D.C. half, including a good cross to Romney.
Daniel Rios – 6.3: Rios had a shot that slid across the face of goal and might’ve crept into the back post if it had a bit more bend on it.
Jhonder Cadiz – 5.5: Entered the match in stoppage time with not enough time to get involved.
MANAGER
Gary Smith – 7: Another day, another draw for Gary Smith’s side. He did say that getting a point out of this match was important though, which is absolutely true, and he had to do some heavy rotation after the conclusion of the international break. His subs did create a few chances though that could’ve resulted in a winner. Regardless, the side moves forward with an important home date with Columbus, one of their final two, before the playoffs start. There might be some collective groans if another draw is the conclusion for that homestand.
What say you? Do you agree or disagree with our match ratings? Feel free to reach out to us on Twitter and let us know your thoughts.
