After an early goal in the first five minutes, Nashville SC saw its lead disappear and had to settle with a 1-1 draw against Minnesota 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 – 5.5: There wasn’t much Willis could really do on Minnesota’s equalizer, as the ball landed in front of Dotson, where Willis could barely react. Regardless, still had three saves on the night and will look to bounce back.
Dan Lovitz – 6.5: A tough day for Lovitz as far as duels go (33%), but did contribute a key pass on offense. Will need to clean up on his long ball accuracy though (38%).
Dave Romney – 7.3: Won all three of his aerial duels and had five clearances. His passing though was a bit off, but that should be cleared up by the next match.
Walker Zimmerman – 7.8: Zimmerman had an instance or two where he got beat, but recovered well and still recorded a couple of key tackles.
Eric Miller – 7: Another solid performance from Miller, who won 67% of his duels. Can he continue this though to solidify his starting role the rest of the season is the real question.
Sean Davis – 7.5:  Picked up a cheap yellow card in the first half, but was a driving force getting the ball forward, completing 91% of his passes.
Anibal Godoy – 6.8: Had a couple of tackles in the middle, but only won 42% of his duels. He did help with the buildup of the goal though, setting up an unintentional screen when he tried to win the ball in the air that sailed over his head, preventing any defender from getting to Mukhtar on time.
Dax McCarty – 7.3: Put in a fantastic cross to Mukhtar for Nashville’s only goal on the night while performing his duties as the last man standing in front of the backline.
Hany Mukhtar – 8: Could have easily attempted a volley on goal from McCarty’s ball in, but instead made the smart decision to play it across the face of goal for Sapong making his run for the easy tap-in. Could have also as easily had a penalty for a foul from behind.
Randall Leal – 7.3: Should have had a goal himself after one of his four shots smacked the woodwork.
CJ Sapong –  8: Sapong is officially on the scorer’s sheet for the 2022 season after he had the easy task of tapping in Mukhtar’s ball played in. Will he be able to string together consecutive games with him putting the ball in the back of the net? We’ll see!
SUBS
Alex Muyl (on 54′)– 6.3: The volley put into the box that led to the goal initially deflected off Muyl, which he certainly couldn’t help since he had no time to react. He does seem to have established himself as one of the first guys off the bench with his high energy.
Teal Bunbury (on 73′) – 5.8: Bunbury had one shot and completed four of his five passes. It’s clear that Smith is starting to see Bunbury as the first attacking option off the bench when he needs more offense.
Aké Loba (on 88′) – 6.0:  Should we begin to worry about Loba? He was a late substitution while Nashville was trying to find a late winner, but confidence in his abilities to be a difference-maker for this front line might be beginning to wane.
Brian Anunga (on 89′)– 6.0:  Did his job of locking down the middle of the park as the game winded down.
MANAGER
Gary Smith – 7.5: A draw that could’ve easily been a win had Leal’s shot off the woodwork gone in, and the penalty shot on Mukhtar been called. Smith was a bit frustrated with the decision, but he seems to have found something with the new formation in place. Four points in two tough road environments is a solid start, and the Boys in Gold will be looking to collect more at Dallas.
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.
