Player rating Canada vs Jamaica

[Scorpion26]

If some may be able to come rate players from what you have seen tonight please do so. I could not watch the game and opinions on tonight match with rating would be great.

[madmonte]

OMIGAWD I just saw the score!  3 goals!  My life has reason again!  (goes hunting for the replay)

[jonovision]

Might have time for a more detailed rating later, but I thought Ricketts and Edwini-Bonsu (and particularly the latter) were very positive. Hutchinson showed his class, even if he wasn't able to involve himself in one of the goals. De Guzman did better than I expected, as did Adam Straith who replaced him in the defensive midfield role.

 

A few guys, like de Jong and Nakajima-Farran, started brightly but clearly didn't have 90 minutes in them. Need to play more for their club sides.

[Bully]

I'll say a midfield of Hutch, bernier and guz was decent.. but the latter two of the three are washing up.

Try Hutch, Johnson and Oso.. Looks nice.

[Yohan]

Borjan 7.5

Henry 6

Edgar 6.5

Hainault 6

De Jong 6.5

Hutchinson 6

Nakajima-Ferran 5

de Guzman 6

Berner 6.5

Edwini-Bonsu 6.5

Ricketts 6.5

 

Subs

Jakovic 6

Bekker 6

Jackson 6

Straith 6.5

De Rosario n/a

Ouimette n/a

[masster]

Borjan - solid. Good game. How can this guy not have a job?

Henry - started really poorly I thought. Improved as the game went on. Wouldn't mind seeing more of this RB experiment.

De Jong - great goal and showed quality on the ball. Some really poor decisions defensively that could have cost us goals.

Hainault - seemed a bit off tonight

Edgar - good goal. Strong game overall except for one ill advised failed interception attempt that led to Jamaica chance and borjan save.

Jakovic - did well. Composed on the ball as always

Hutchinson - quality. Have seen him play better though

De Guzman - okay outing for a guy without a club. His poor foul led to the free kick goal. Kept possession well, but didn't seem to be getting around the park much, perhaps due to lack of games

Bernier - still has a role to play for us. Good game

Bekker - okay, not sharp though.

Straith - nice little cameo. Always thought he had something to offer. How can this guy not seem to keep a job?

Issey - bright early, then faded

Jackson - not much to say

REB - positive and fearless, but sometimes just needs to play simpler

Ricketts - biggest positive surprise for me. Touch seemed to be much improved. Hold up play was good too. Maybe I just had super low expectations.

[Cheeta]

Hard to rank, but I can't get Edwini-Bonsu out of my head.  Not just "active" but influential.  

 

Thought Edgar was very good for the most part.

 

Also though Hutch is, at this point, a luxury.  Hate to say it, and I'm not basing this opinion only on tonight's meaningless friendly, but his talent is wasted with the national team.  It has to be a priority finding a way to get the other players to work off him.  It's tough because so much of what he does best relies on working off those around him and well, we just haven't seemed to be able to find any sort of partnership for him since The Guz peaked and began his torturous decent into mediocrity.

 

Not a collective ranking but MoTM for me goes to E-B with an honourable mention to Borjan.     

[toontownman]

Borjan - 7.5   - Some great work and stops brought down but a little bit of indecision and moments of panic. Think he can be more vocal with his defence, but a solid performance.

Henry - 6.5 -  Just felt much more confident with him at LB. I have zero confidence in his concentration and decision making at CB (where hopefully he ends up if he can iron out those issues) His athleticism, strength and even a nice turn of pace meant he actually offered a good support and threat down our right flank. Happy to see him continue here for the moment until a natural RB replacement is brought through.

Edgar 6.5 - Will be happy with that volley. Edgar had a decent game, was the most vocal at the back which he probably should have been. Good in the air and although the defense had some lapses in concentration I thought Edgar was the pick of the bunch at the back, bar Henry.

Hainault 5.5 - They say being generally anonymous in a football game is a good thing and means you are doing your job correctly. Some breakdowns in communication, which could be attributed to the entire back four on several occasions but Hainault had a reasonably solid if unspectacular showing.

De Jong 5.5 - Yeah I know this is a bit of a harsh rating for Marcel, stunning free kick, he had a couple of good forays down the left too. However, much of his defensive decision making was shocking and he was lucky we didn't conceed on several of his mistakes. I hope Adekube gets some playing time at the Caps and grows into this position, while Marcel can offer more possibly on the wing. His attacking threat and crossing abilities are useful. I just maybe expected more from someone of his experience and talent.

Hutchinson 6 - The pick of our midfield, which is never a surprise. Such a great engine. Nothing too flashy but was the steady hand of our midfield and linked up play well.

Nakajima-Farran 5.5 - Thought he was effective in the first half but certainly not the terrorizer he can be. Some nice link up play and passing. So glad to see him back with the NT, he can be such a classy player on his day and add the spark and creativity we lack.

de Guzman 5.5 - Much like Atiba and Hainault a steady but not wonderfully prominent game. He, Bernier and Hutch kept the midfield reasonably tight which was important.

Bernier 5.5 - Looked a bit leggy but nice to see him back in the fold to pass on his experience with the squad.

Edwini-Bonsu 6.5 - A constant threat, until the important part. If he had any idea how to finish or make that killer pass he could be an invaluable fantastic player for the team. Surprised he was taken off in preference to a leggy and tired Ricketts. Good and promising showing.

Ricketts - 6 - Lots of running and creating space, was rewarded with a goal. Not spectacular but was certainly useful tonight.

 

Subs

Jakovic 5.5 - Came on and like Jackson solidified our hold on the game and made sure we saw out the finish, two goal lead intact.

Bekker 5 - Took a long time for him to get into the game and he was sloppy and looked far out of his depth for the first 10/15 minutes of his introduction. Grew into the game though. I am so far from convinced by him. Looks to have gone backwards, which is not any kind of surprise given his lack of opportunties at club level.

Jackson 5.5 - showed good experience in possession and was just what we needed to see out the game. 

Straith 5.5 - Much like Hainault, came on and did little wrong.

De Rosario n/a

Ouimette n/a

 

Floro - 8    Set up the team very well today to cope with Jamaicas pace, our midfield nullified and broke down their attacks well. We played very well in possesion and our passing looks far better. There were a few times however I thought we looked like we had to play our way our of defence under pain of death, rather than just clearing the ball. If that is what gets away from the long ball culture sure, but we can mix it up if necessary. Nicely worked set pieces, good subs and had everyone fired up. Tons of work still to do, especially in solidifying our defence, but so many positives today with many potentially exciting players missing.

[jpg75]

Starters

Borjan 7 - redeemed himself in the second half

Henry 5.5 - he is not a fullback who can stretch the defence pushing up the flanks

Edgar 6.5 - good game, great goal

Hainault 6 - steady, unspectacular

De Jong 5.5 - great goal, looked like shit after he scored - as if it went to his head 

Hutchinson 7 - one of our top players, controlled midfield

Issey 5 - didn't do much

de Guzman 6 - steady work, can still contribute

Berner 5 - aside from the corner assist on the edgar goal he looked really sloppy

Edwini-Bonsu 7 - very involved, one of our few dangerous players going forward

Ricketts 6.5 - right place at the right time on the goal. 

 

Subs

Jakovic 5.5 - did alright, hard time keeping up with Larza. 

Bekker 5 - mostly ineffective.

Jackson 6 - made some good runs forward.

Straith 6 - steady play, took over for de Guzman seamlessly.

DeRo N/A

Ouimette N/A

[El Hombre]

De Jong 5.5 - Yeah I know this is a bit of a harsh rating for Marcel, stunning free kick, he had a couple of good forays down the left too. However, much of his defensive decision making was shocking and he was lucky we didn't conceed on several of his mistakes. I hope Adekube gets some playing time at the Caps and grows into this position, while Marcel can offer more possibly on the wing. His attacking threat and crossing abilities are useful. I just maybe expected more from someone of his experience and talent.

 

 

I agree with this.  If he was a midfielder, it would've been up at a 7 or 8, but I like my defenders able to defend.  Moving him up the park further is an interesting thought, especially with the depth at LB we seemingly have (Adekugbe, Tissot, Morgan etc.).

[shermanator]

I agree with the opinions of the players above, won't really offer much new.

 

If Edwini-Bonsu could have hit the target, he would have been rated MOTM for myself. Instead, that honour goes to Borjan, who was tremendous. I thought Henry's performance at RB was quite poor to start the game, but he really improved as the match went on. Better to have him make mistakes at RB than CB. I still think an Edgar - Henry CB pairing is the go to pair in the future once Henry gets a little more experience.

 

The player who stood out the most in a bad way was Bekker. Just poor passing.

 

Really, for the first win in 23 months, how bad could the players have been

[Ivan]

Same here. I agree with most of the comments. Edgar, Borjan, REB, Hutch were my faves. Hainault, Dejong (goal aside)and Issey struggled.

I'll give some props to JDG - didn't play great, but seemed to work hard.

The game left me wondering what we could be like with Tiebert and Osorio's passing ability and a true number 9 like Cavallini or Tesho (with all due respect to Ricketts who I thought did his best out of position).

[David C.]

A few random thoughts...

1 - Was it just me or did last night feel a bit like a testimonial match for Bernier and deRosario?

2 - I was a bit disappointed not to see Jakovic at RB, where he plays (seemingly very well) in Japan. Boy, has he lost weight - twiggy legs.

3 - Although Henry generally looked pretty strong (playing somewhat out of position at RB), I am still worried that he plays a reckless game. He's going to be a card-concern, playing qualifiers against Latin American teams, with CONCACAF refs.

4 - I was very pleased to see us play with a "plan", even though we wavered a few times. Set pieces were much better and our positioning off the ball (and defending) seemed better (mainly in midfield and up front).

5 - Despite the improvement, I can't help but be reminded that we played against a somewhat experimental Jamaica squad, that didn't have an 8-day camp to prepare.

6 - Ricketts strikes me as being a smart player, with good vision. His goal was the second time I've seen him pounce on a quick opportunity (he took advantage of (was it Ecuador?) complaining to the ref, which ended up in a goal).

7 - As mentioned by others, I can't believe that Borjan and Straith are unattached. Both played well (especially considering they weren't match fit) and surely should be able to help a decent level team somewhere.

[Gian-Luca]

 

Starters

 

Henry 5.5 - he is not a fullback who can stretch the defence pushing up the flanks

 

 

This one stands out for me as the mark I'd most disagree with. I would definitely rank him higher than Hainault (who gave the ball away dangerously a couple of times in his own end). All of the damage that Jamaica did came down our left side, they created absolutely nothing down our right the whole game in large part because they couldn't get past Doneil. In the second half I was close enough to the field the Jamaican players practically looked scared of playing against him. And he did actually cause some trouble for Jamaica attacking wise. He did make a couple of poor passes in the first half, but deep in Jamaica's zone where it couldn't and didn't really hurt us. I'd go as high as an 8 overall, largely for the defensive dominance even when playing out of position.

[jpg75]

This one stands out for me as the mark I'd most disagree with. I would definitely rank him higher than Hainault (who gave the ball away dangerously a couple of times in his own end). All of the damage that Jamaica did came down our left side, they created absolutely nothing down our right the whole game in large part because they couldn't get past Doneil. In the second half I was close enough to the field the Jamaican players practically looked scared of playing against him. And he did actually cause some trouble for Jamaica attacking wise. He did make a couple of poor passes in the first half, but deep in Jamaica's zone where it couldn't and didn't really hurt us. I'd go as high as an 8 overall, largely for the defensive dominance even when playing out of position.

You're right, he did pretty well defensively and i should atleast bump him to a 6. However, i stand by the getting forward part of my assessment - it was apparent that Lawrence had no problems with Doneil attacking down that flank, plus the crosses were poor.

[rob.notenboom]

I've said this elsewhere but Ricketts seemed to be playing with more confidence than I've ever seen from him. TBH I'd written him off, thinking that he had developed as far as was likely and that that was simply not going to cut it at this level. However, he seems to still be getting better. He had better touches and was better with his head than he has been in the past (in fact some of his goals last year in the Turkish league were excellent on both counts). Very happy to see him continue the positive trajectory of his development and I suspect his contribution in the coming years will be much more than I would have bet on a year ago.

[jonovision]

One thing I've noticed about Ricketts is that without losing too much of his speed, he seems to have added a lot of muscle mass which can only help with his hold up play. In addition to having the strength to fight off defenders, he seems to be improving at making the right decisions to lay off a ball, or play it through or wide. I don't know if he'll ever resemble a traditional central striker, but who does anymore in football? But I think the changes in his game have made him a more useful player for Canada.

 

Don't look now, but his 7 goals in 33 matches, many of which have been substitute appearances, place him pretty high on our active goal scoring chart, especially on a NPG/90 basis (he's surely ahead of De Ro there).

[Blackdude]

Oh and remember that during WCQ, Ricketts was pretty much unattached because of complications with the Romanian FA.

[BearcatSA]

5 - Despite the improvement, I can't help but be reminded that we played against a somewhat experimental Jamaica squad, that didn't have an 8-day camp to prepare.

 

I re-watched my recording of the match and I just didn't think they were very good on the evening, but...we didn't let our game drop after we took the lead and did a good job sticking with the game plan, and to me that was really important here, so good on the players.